Chapter 6 - The structure of bluetongue virus core and proteins

Abstract

This chapter provides an understanding of the structure of bluetongue virus (BTV) core and proteins. The BTV particle provides a secure compartment for packaging and transporting the viral genome from one infected host cell to the next. The protein components of the outer capsid layer of the virus are directly involved in binding to the cell surface and initiating cell entry. The absence of host cell RNA polymerases that are able to use dsRNA as a template for mRNA synthesis suggests that a naked dsRNA virus genome would be transcriptionally and translationally inert within the host cell cytoplasm. The structure of the inner core particle of BTV also provides a secure space, within which 10 genome segments can be repeatedly transcribed into ssRNA by the coreassociated RNA polymerase. The positive-sense RNA copies (viral mRNAs) are synthesized simultaneously from each of the genome segments and are released from the core particle directly into the host cell cytoplasm. They can then function as templates for both translation and negative-strand viral RNA synthesis within nascent progeny virus particles.