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Structure of influenza virus ribonucleoprotein complexes and their packaging into virions
Author(s) -
Noda Takeshi,
Kawaoka Yoshihiro
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
reviews in medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.06
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1099-1654
pISSN - 1052-9276
DOI - 10.1002/rmv.666
Subject(s) - ribonucleoprotein , virology , polymerase , rna , transcription (linguistics) , genome , biology , virus , viral replication , nucleoprotein , rna polymerase , influenza a virus , microbiology and biotechnology , dna , genetics , gene , linguistics , philosophy
The influenza A virus genome consists of eight segmented, single‐stranded, negative‐sense RNAs. Each viral RNA (vRNA) segment forms a ribonucleoprotein (RNP) complex together with NPs and a polymerase complex, which is a fundamental unit for transcription and replication of the viral genome. Although the exact structure of the intact RNP remains poorly understood, recent electron microscopic studies have revealed certain structural characteristics of the RNP. This review focuses on the findings of these various electron microscopic analyses of RNPs extracted from virions and RNPs inside virions. Based on the morphological and structural observations, we present the architecture of RNPs within a virion and discuss the genome packaging mechanism by which the vRNA segments are incorporated into virions. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.