Molecular organization of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus capsids assembled from Gag polyprotein in Escherichia coli.

We describe the results of a study by electron microscopy and image processing of Gag protein shells-immature capsids--of Mason-Pfizer monkey virus assembled in Escherichia coli from two truncated forms of the Gag precursor: Deltap4Gag, in which the C-terminal p4Gag was deleted, and Pro(-)CA.NC, in which the N-terminal peptides and proline 1 of the CA domain were deleted. Negative staining of capsids revealed small patches of holes forming a trigonal or hexagonal pattern most clearly visible on occasional tubular forms. The center-to-center spacing of holes in the network was 7.1 nm in Deltap4Gag capsids and 7.4 nm in Pro(-)CA.NC capsids. Image processing of Deltap4Gag tubes revealed a hexagonal network of holes formed by six subunits with a single subunit shared between rings. This organization suggests that the six subunits are contributed by three trimers of the truncated Gag precursor. Similar molecular organization was observed in negatively stained Pro(-)CA.NC capsids. Shadowed replicas of freeze-etched capsids produced by either construct confirmed the presence of a hexagonal network of holes with a similar center-to-center spacing. We conclude that the basic building block of the cage-like network is a trimer of the Deltap4Gag or Pro(-)CA.NC domains. In addition, our results point to a key role of structurally constrained CA domain in the trimeric interaction of the Gag polyprotein.