Structure of tobacco mosaic virus at 6.7 å resolution.

The electron density distribution of tobacco mosaic virus has been determined to 6.7 A resolution by analysis of the X-ray diffraction pattern given by oriented gels of the virus. This has been achieved by separation of overlapping Bessel function terms by a technique analogous to crystallographic isomorphous replacement. The course of the polypeptide chain of the coat protein may be traced for a large part of its length.