Exploring the role of genome and structural ions in preventing viral capsid dehydration

MARTÍN-GONZÁLEZ, N; GUERIN, S; DURANA, A; MARTI G. A; GUERIN, D. M. A.; DE PABLO GOMEZ, P. J

JOURNAL OF PHYSICS CONDENSED MATTER

IOP PUBLISHING LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2018 vol. 30 p. 1 - 9

0953-8984

Virusesevolve in liquid milieu but their horizontal transmission routes can includedry environments. Along their life cycle, some insect viruses, such as virusesfrom Dicistroviridae family, withstanddehydrated conditions with yet unknown consequences in their structuralstability. Here we use Atomic Force Microscopy to monitor the structuralchanges of viral particles of Triatomavirus (TrV) after desiccation. Our results demonstrate that TrV capsid preservestheir genome inside, conserving their size after exposure to dehydratingcondition. This is in stark contrast with other viruses that expel out theirgenome when are desiccated. In contrast, empty capsids (without genome) resultin collapsed particles after desiccation. We also explored the role of thestructural ions in the dehydration process of the virions (capsid containinggenome) by chelating the accessible cations from the external solvent milieu. Weobserved that ions suppression helps to keep the virus structure integrity upondesiccation. These results show that under drying conditions, the genome of TrVpreserves de capsid from dehydration, while the structural ions favor the leakof the internal solvent.