REVIEW

Picornavirus uncoating

M S Smyth¹ and J H Martin²

¹ Molecular Structure Solutions, MA Block, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1SB, UK
² Division of Biomedical Sciences, School of Applied Sciences, University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, WV1 1SB, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr M S Smyth, Molecular Structure Solutions, MA Block, Wulfruna Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1SB, UK;
m.s.smyth{at}wlv.ac.uk

Recently, much has been learned about the molecular mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of picornaviruses. This has been accelerated by the solving of the crystal structures of many members of this virus family. However, one stage of the virus life cycle remains poorly understood: uncoating. How do these simple but efficient pathogens protect their RNA genomes with a stable protein shell and yet manage to uncoat this genome at precisely the right time during infection? The purpose of this article is to review the current state of knowledge and the most recent theories that attempt to answer this question. The review is based extensively on structural data but also makes reference to the wealth of biochemical information on the topic.

Keywords: picornavirus; uncoating; x ray crystallography

Abbreviations: BEV, bovine enterovirus; CAV9, coxsackievirus A9; FMDV, foot and mouth disease virus; HRV, human rhinovirus; RGD motif, arginine-glycine-aspartate; WIN, Winthrop

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Kittelmann, K., Jeske, H. (2008). Disassembly of African cassava mosaic virus. J. Gen. Virol. 89: 2029-2036 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Mizumoto, H., Tomaru, Y., Takao, Y., Shirai, Y., Nagasaki, K. (2007). Intraspecies Host Specificity of a Single-Stranded RNA Virus Infecting a Marine Photosynthetic Protist Is Determined at the Early Steps of Infection. J. Virol. 81: 1372-1378 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Asher, D. R., Cerny, A. M., Finberg, R. W. (2005). The erythrocyte viral trap: Transgenic expression of viral receptor on erythrocytes attenuates coxsackievirus B infection. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102: 12897-12902 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Goens, S. D., Botero, S., Zemla, A., Zhou, C. E., Perdue, M. L. (2004). Bovine enterovirus 2: complete genomic sequence and molecular modelling of a reference strain and a wild-type isolate from endemically infected US cattle. J. Gen. Virol. 85: 3195-3203 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Carreira, A., Menendez, M., Reguera, J., Almendral, J. M., Mateu, M. G. (2004). In Vitro Disassembly of a Parvovirus Capsid and Effect on Capsid Stability of Heterologous Peptide Insertions in Surface Loops. J. Biol. Chem. 279: 6517-6525 [Abstract] [Full Text]