微生物学微生物学 (24).docVIP

MorphologyofVirus

Afterlearningthissection,youshouldbeableto:

Statethesizerangeofvirions

Identifythepartsofavirionanddescribetheirfunction

Distinguishenvelopedvirusesfromnonenvelopedviruses

Describethetypesofcapsidsymmetry

Acompletevirusparticleiscalledavirion.Virionmorphologyhasbeenintenselystudiedoverthepastdecadesbecauseoftheimportanceofvirusesandtherealizationthatvirionstructureissimpleenoughtobeunderstoodindetail.Progresshascomefromtheuseofseveraldifferenttechniques:electronmicroscopy,X-raydiffraction,biochemicalanalysis,andimmunology.Althoughour

knowledgeisincompleteduetothelargenumberofdifferentviruses,wecandiscussthegeneralnatureofvirionstructure.

GeneralStructuralProperties

Virionsrangeinsizefromabout10to400nmindiameter(figure6.1).Thesmallestarealittlelargerthanribosomes,whereasmimiviruses,thelargestvirusesknown,havevirionslargerthansomeofthesmallestbacteriaandcanbeseeninthelightmicroscope.However,mostvirusparticlesmustbeviewedwithelectronmicroscopes.

Thesimplestvirionsareconstructedofanucleocapsid(figure6.2a).Thenucleocapsidiscomposedofanucleicacid,eitherDNAorRNA,andaproteincoatcalledthecapsid.

Theviralnucleicacidissurroundedbythecapsid,whichprotectstheviralgenomeandaidsinitstransferbetweenhostcells.Amongtheproteinsencodedbytheviralgenomearethe

capsidproteins,whicharecalledprotomers.

Fromthispicture,wealsoseeanotherkindvironshavinganenvelope,wecallthemenvelopedviruses,whereasthoselackinganenvelopearecallednonenvelopedornakedviruses.

Thisthebasicstructureforavrion,thenlet,sseethetypesofcapsidsymmetry.

Therearethreetypesofcapsidsymmetries:helical,icosahedral,andcomplex.

HelicalCapsids

Helicalcapsidsareshapedlikehollowtubeswithproteinwalls.

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