Satellite tobacco mosaic virusrefined to 1.4 Å resolution

Abstract

Satellite tobacco mosaic virus(STMV) is among the smallest viruses, having 60 identical subunits arranged withT= 1 icosahedral symmetry. Its crystal structure was solved at 290 K and was refined using, in part, crystals grown in microgravity. Electron-density maps revealed nearly 57% of the genomic ssRNA. Using six flash-cooled crystals, diffraction data were recorded to 1.4 Å resolution and independent refinements of the STMV model were carried outversusthe previous 1.8 Å resolution data representing merged data from 21 crystals (271 689 unique reflections), data consisting of corresponding reflections to 1.8 Å resolution from the cooled crystals and 1.4 Å resolution data from the cooled crystals comprised of 570 721 unique reflections. Models were independently refined with full NCS constraints using the programCNSand in restrained mode using the programsCNS,REFMAC5 andSHELX-97, with the latter two procedures including anisotropic temperature factors. Significant additional structural detail emerged from the analyses, including a unique cation and anion arrangement on fivefold axes and a precise assessment of icosahedral symmetry exactness in the crystal lattice. STMV represents the highest resolution native virus structure currently known by a substantial margin, and it permits the evaluation of a precise atomic model of a spherical virus at near-atomic resolution for the first time.