Proteins taken from a spherical virus and combined with pieces of DNA can form tubular nanostructures, researchers report. The finding could offer clues to how such molecules self-assemble.
In nature, the well-studied cowpea chlorotic mottle virus turns the leaves of the cowpea plant yellow, but it doesn’t harm its host. The virus has a 20-sided, spherical outer shell composed of RNA and viral proteins. It owes this geometry to the way that these two components weakly bind, says Adam Zlotnick of the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center in Oklahoma City.