Structure determination of simian virus 40 and murine polyomavirus by a combination of 30-fold and 5-fold electron-density averaging.

BACKGROUND: Simian virus 40 (SV40) and murine polyomavirus (polyoma) are non-enveloped DNA tumor viruses. Their structurally similar capsids, about 500 degrees in diameter, are formed by 72 pentamers of the major coat protein VP1.
RESULTS: We describe in this paper the structure determination of SV40 and polyoma at 3.8 degree resolution, focusing particularly on methodological issues, and on a comparison of the overall molecular organization in the two related virus particles. Initial phases for SV40 were obtained by single isomorphous replacement at 6.5 degree. Phases were refined and the resolution extended to 3.8 degree by a combination of strict 5-fold and partial 30-fold electron-density averaging. The structure of polyoma was subsequently determined by systematically translating and rotating the individual VP1 pentamers, in order to find the maximum correlation between calculated and observed structure factors. The resolution was then extended to 3.8 degree, also by phase refinement through electron-density averaging.
CONCLUSION: The strategies for density averaging and for molecular replacement, used to determine the SV40 and polyoma structures, are likely to be generally useful. The individual building blocks, the VP1 pentamers, are essentially identical in both cases, as are the local details of their interactions with neighboring pentamers. Nevertheless, the arrangement of the pentamers with respect to each other is somewhat different in the two viruses. Whereas SV40 is almost spherical, with all pentamers at identical radii, the pentamers in polyoma that lie on icosahedral fivefold axes are displaced outward by about 5 degree.