小柯机器人

美国维吉尼亚大学Edward H. Egelman、法国巴黎大学Mart Krupovic等研究人员合作发现，纺锤形古细菌病毒从杆状祖先演化而来。这一研究成果于2022年3月23日在线发表在国际学术期刊《细胞》上。

研究人员确定了Sulfolobus monocaudavirus病毒衣壳的原子结构，这种病毒感染生活在几乎沸腾的酸中的宿主。一个高度疏水性的蛋白质，可能在病毒组装前就被整合到了宿主的膜上，形成了7条链，在尾部和纺锤体上相互滑动。研究人员观察到随着尾管的扩张而发生的不同步骤，这些都是由于与相邻亚单位的高度保守的准等价相互作用所造成的，尽管直径发生了明显的变化。这些研究结果表明，螺旋形集合体可以改变其直径，变得接近球形以包装更大的基因组，并揭示所有的纺锤形病毒是如何从古细菌棒状病毒进化而来的。

据介绍，纺锤形或柠檬形病毒在不同的环境中感染古细菌。由于这些病毒的高度多形性，可以发现有圆柱形的尾巴从纺锤形的身体中发出，因此对这些衣壳的结构研究一直具有挑战性。

附：英文原文

Title: Spindle-shaped archaeal viruses evolved from rod-shaped ancestors to package a larger genome

Author: Fengbin Wang, Virginija Cvirkaite-Krupovic, Matthijn Vos, Leticia C. Beltran, Mark A.B. Kreutzberger, Jean-Marie Winter, Zhangli Su, Jun Liu, Stefan Schouten, Mart Krupovic, Edward H. Egelman

Issue&Volume: 2022-03-23

Abstract: Spindle- or lemon-shaped viruses infect archaea in diverse environments. Due to thehighly pleomorphic nature of these virions, which can be found with cylindrical tailsemanating from the spindle-shaped body, structural studies of these capsids have beenchallenging. We have determined the atomic structure of the capsid of Sulfolobus monocaudavirus1, a virus that infects hosts living in nearly boiling acid. A highly hydrophobicprotein, likely integrated into the host membrane before the virions assemble, forms7 strands that slide past each other in both the tails and the spindle body. We observethe discrete steps that occur as the tail tubes expand, and these are due to highlyconserved quasiequivalent interactions with neighboring subunits maintained despitesignificant diameter changes. Our results show how helical assemblies can vary theirdiameters, becoming nearly spherical to package a larger genome and suggest how allspindle-shaped viruses have evolved from archaeal rod-like viruses.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.02.019

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00199-4