Visual Representation by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus Ribonucleoproteins
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Jan-Wolfhard Kellmann
Abstract
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) allows the observation of biological material without fixation procedures. Here we present AFM images of ribonucleoproteins (nucleocapsids) derived from a plant infecting RNA virus (tomato spotted wilt virus, TSWV), which have been recorded in contact mode. The nucleocapsids, prepared from systemically infected leaves of tobacco, were spreaded on a glass surface and dried in air, and appeared as regularly formed rings, resembling the proposed pseudocircular and panhandle structure of encapsidated genomic RNA. Average values between 1300 and 2200 nm of nucleocapsid lengths could be related to dimensions estimated by electron microscopy, thereby validating a filamentous configuration of the TSWV ribonucleoproteins. However, to our knowledge regular, ringlike forms of ribonucleoproteins have not been obtained by electron microscopy, which rather showed an amorphous structure of the virus particles. Hence, the AFM approach provides a starting point for further detailed studies on TSWV ribonucleoprotein complexes.
Copyright © 2001 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG
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- The Large Cytoplasmic Loop of the Glucose Transporter GLUT1 Is an Essential Structural Element for Function
- Visual Representation by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) of Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus Ribonucleoproteins
- Elimination of Hydrocortisone from the Medium Enables Tissue Plasminogen Activator Gene Expression by Normal and Immortalized Nonmalignant Human Epithelial Cells
- Molecular Cloning and Biochemical Characterisation of Proteases from Staphylococcus epidermidis
- Splice Variants of Human Cathepsin L mRNA Show Different Expression Rates
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- Protective Activity of Aromatic Amines and Imines against Oxidative Nerve Cell Death
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