The infectious particle of insect-borne totivirus-like Omono River virus has raised ridges and lacks fibre complexes

Sci Rep. 2016 Sep 12:6:33170. doi: 10.1038/srep33170.

Abstract

Omono River virus (OmRV) is a double-stranded RNA virus isolated from Culex mosquitos, and it belongs to a group of unassigned insect viruses that appear to be related to Totiviridae. This paper describes electron cryo-microscopy (cryoEM) structures for the intact OmRV virion to 8.9 Å resolution and the structure of the empty virus-like-particle, that lacks RNA, to 8.3 Å resolution. The icosahedral capsid contains 120-subunits and resembles another closely related arthropod-borne totivirus-like virus, the infectious myonecrosis virus (IMNV) from shrimps. Both viruses have an elevated plateau around their icosahedral 5-fold axes, surrounded by a deep canyon. Sequence and structural analysis suggests that this plateau region is mainly composed of the extended C-terminal region of the capsid proteins. In contrast to IMNV, the infectious form of OmRV lacks extensive fibre complexes at its 5-fold axes as directly confirmed by a contrast-enhancement technique, using Zernike phase-contrast cryo-EM. Instead, these fibre complexes are replaced by a short "plug" structure at the five-fold axes of OmRV. OmRV and IMNV have acquired an extracellular phase, and the structures at the five-fold axes may be significant in adaptation to cell-to-cell transmission in metazoan hosts.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aedes / virology
  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Animals
  • Capsid / ultrastructure*
  • Capsid Proteins / chemistry
  • Capsid Proteins / ultrastructure
  • Cells, Cultured
  • Cryoelectron Microscopy
  • Insect Vectors / virology
  • Models, Molecular
  • Protein Domains
  • Protein Structure, Quaternary
  • Totiviridae / ultrastructure*
  • Virion / ultrastructure*

Substances

  • Capsid Proteins