JVI Figure table search 04
Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Wu, L.
Right arrow Articles by Zhou, Z. H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Wu, L.
Right arrow Articles by Zhou, Z. H.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Virology, October 2000, p. 9646-9654, Vol. 74, No. 20
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Three-Dimensional Structure of the Human Herpesvirus 8 Capsid

Lijun Wu,1 Pierrette Lo,2 Xuekui Yu,2 James K. Stoops,2 B. Forghani,1 and Z. Hong Zhou2,*

Viral and Rickettsial Disease Laboratory, Division of Communicable Disease Control, California Department of Health Services, Berkeley, California 94720,1 and Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, Texas 770302

Received 31 May 2000/Accepted 13 July 2000

Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), or Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, is a gammaherpesvirus implicated in all forms of Kaposi's sarcoma and certain lymphomas. HHV-8 has been extensively characterized, both biochemically and immunologically, since its first description in 1994. However, its three-dimensional (3D) structure remained heretofore undetermined largely due to difficulties in viral purification. We have used log-phase cultures of body cavity-based lymphoma 1 cells induced with 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate to obtain HHV-8 capsids for electron cryomicroscopy and computer reconstruction. The 3D structure of the HHV-8 capsids revealed a capsid shell composed of 12 pentons, 150 hexons, and 320 triplexes arranged on a T=16 icosahedral lattice. This structure is similar to those of herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) and human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), which are prototypical members of alpha- and betaherpesviruses, respectively. The inner radius of the HHV-8 capsid is identical to that of the HSV-1 capsid but is smaller than that of the HCMV capsid, which is consistent with the relative sizes of the genomes they enclose. While the HHV-8 capsid exhibits many structural similarities to the HSV-1 capsid, our reconstruction shows two major differences: its hexons lack the "horn-shaped" VP26 densities bound to the HSV-1 hexon subunits, and the HHV-8 triplexes appear smaller and less elongated than those of HSV-1. These differences are in excellent agreement with our sequence comparisons of HHV-8 and HSV-1 capsid proteins. This gammaherpesvirus capsid structure complements previous structural studies on alpha- and betaherpesviruses in providing an account of structural similarities and differences among capsids representing all human herpesvirus subfamilies.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Texas-Houston Medical School, Houston, TX 77030. Phone: (713) 500-5358. Fax: (713) 500-0730. E-mail: Z.H.Zhou{at}uth.tmc.edu.

Journal of Virology, October 2000, p. 9646-9654, Vol. 74, No. 20
0022-538X/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:



Home Help [Feedback] [For Subscribers] [Archive] [Search] [Contents]
J. Bacteriol. Mol. Cell. Biol. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev.
Clin. Vaccine Immunol. ALL ASM JOURNALS

Copyright © 2000 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.