Taiwanese researchers yesterday said that they had detailed the structure of filamentous plant viruses by analyzing the structure of a plant virus commonly found in bamboo.
Academia Sinica research fellow Lin Na-sheng (林納生) said that the finding would significantly bolster animal vaccine manufacturing technologies.
The study, co-led by Lin, National Chung Hsing University professor Hsu Yao-heiu (徐堯輝) and US’ University of Virginia professor Edward Egelman, is the first to successfully construct a complete molecular structure of this type of virus, something international scientists have not been able to accomplish over the past 75 years, Lin said.
Filamentous viruses affect more than half of all plant species worldwide, hampering growth and decreasing output, she said.
She said that there are two types of filamentous viruses, rigid or flexible, and that scientists previously only managed to analyze the structure of rigid, rod-like species, as the flexible properties of the second type of virus made its structure extremely difficult to determine.
The bamboo mosaic virus, a virus that affects bamboo in tropical as well as in subtropical regions, including Taiwan, was used for the study, she said.
Using high-resolution X-ray fiber diffraction technology, the scientists first captured images of the virus at near-atomic level with a direct electron detector, she said.
They then constructed a three-dimensional model of the virus using Iterative Helical Real Space Reconstruction software developed by Egelman, Lin said.
She said that an initial model of the bamboo virus was obtained by docking capsid protein extracted from papaya mosaic virus — a similar virus — with the N and C termini knocked off.
The bamboo virus’ N and C termini were subsequently built by using simulation software and the enumerative backbone sampling protocol, which conducted amino acid sequencing of the capsid protein, she said.
After docking the ribonucleic acid structure of the Rift Valley fever virus, which has a similar curvature to the bamboo virus, into the structure to observe how it was encapsidated by the capsid protein and putting the results through computer tests, the scientists concluded that a valid filamentous viral model had been finalized, Lin said.
The model has a resolution of 5.9 angstroms, she said.
She said that filamentous plant viruses have a high structural stability and are therefore excellent vectors for making vaccines targeting animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease.
Lin said that as existing vaccines for foot-and-mouth disease are produced by inactivating viruses, vaccinated swine could end up getting the disease, but now that researchers have a clear understanding of the viral structure, a next-generation, 100 percent safe, vaccine can be developed by embedding peptides — protein segments — of foot-and-mouth viruses in the plant virus.
Hsu said that the method could be used to manufacture human vaccines and pharmaceutical protein products after it passes animal and clinical tests.
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