Three-dimensional Structure of Rice Dwarf Virus by Electron Cryomicroscopy

The three-dimensional(3D)structure of intact rice dwarf virus(RDV)has been deter-mined to 2.6 nm resolution by 400kV electron cryomicroscopy and computer reconstructiontechniques.The intact virion of 69.8 nm in diameter was seen to be made up of an outer shellof 6.9 nm in thickness and an inner shell of 2.5 nm in thickness at a diameter of 54 nm.Theouter shell surface forms a T=13 icosahedral lattice with holes at 5-and 6-coordinated posi-tions.The 780 capsomeres at local 3-fold positions appear trimeric.The interface betweenthese two shells could be clearly delineated and the interaction was maintained by a cylindri-cal density whose upper domain connects subunits of the trimeric capsomeres by an interlock-ing mechanism.The 3D structure of inner shell was also reconstructed to 3.3 nm from100kV images of purified inner shell particles,confirming our interpretation of the multilayerstructure of intact RDV.