Nano-fibers produced by viral infection of amoeba visualized by atomic force microscopy

In the course of an atomic force microscopy investigation of mimivirus, we observed that disrupted virions released masses of fibers that were several hundreds of nanometers in length and that could not be explained as nucleic acid or polysaccharide. The fibers exhibited a strong 7 nm periodicity al...

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Published inBiopolymers Vol. 95; no. 4; pp. 234 - 239
Main Authors Kuznetsov, Yurii G., McPherson, Alexander
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 01.04.2011
Subjects
Amoeba
Amoeba - virology
Atomic force microscopy
Banded structure
Bands
Biopolymers
coiled-coil
Fibers
Microscopy, Atomic Force - methods
Mimiviridae - ultrastructure
mimivirus
Nanofibers - chemistry
Nanofibers - ultrastructure
Nanostructure
Oligosaccharides - chemistry
periodicity
Reproduction
Ribbons
Virion - isolation & purification
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Summary:In the course of an atomic force microscopy investigation of mimivirus, we observed that disrupted virions released masses of fibers that were several hundreds of nanometers in length and that could not be explained as nucleic acid or polysaccharide. The fibers exhibited a strong 7 nm periodicity along their lengths. They existed singly, and also as ribbons, cables, and in multi stranded coils. In the aggregate structures, the periodic bands of the individual fibers aligned laterally to produce ribbons and other superstructures having a corresponding pattern of 7 nm periodic transverse bands. We have not observed such fibers in studies of other virus and cellular systems. The fibers are mechanically flexible and resistant to breakage. Occasionally fibers were associated with toroidal protein complexes, assumed to be processive enzyme complexes, apparently in the act of modifying the fibers. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Biopolymers 95: 234–239, 2011.
Bibliography:ArticleID:BIP21563
istex:E6C9DFBA3AA68C4F7D2D90948D6744CC67447ECC
This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The "Published Online" date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com
ark:/67375/WNG-4LZS9FK7-5
This article was originally published online as an accepted preprint. The “Published Online” date corresponds to the preprint version. You can request a copy of the preprint by emailing the Biopolymers editorial office at biopolymers@wiley.com
ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0006-3525
1097-0282
1097-0282
DOI:10.1002/bip.21563