Cryo Electron Microscopy of SSV1 phage particles

Abstract

SSVl phages are lemon-shaped particles, normally about 90 nm x 40 nm in size, with short tail fibres attached to one pole, produced by the thermophilic archaeon Sulfolobus shibate, isolate B12. They are made of 3 different proteins and DNA (15.5 kbp). Two proteins, together with host lipid, form the envelope, the third protein is associated with the DNA. Interestingly, this virus produces particles of varying size and shape. We have investigated the mass of the virions by STEM mass determination, the inner structure by cryo-electron microscopy, and the shape variability by electron tomography. Automatic electron tomography (AET) has been shown to be a useful technique for collecting 3D structural data of individual biological particles under low dose conditions, in negative stain as well as in frozen-hydrated preparations.Taking electron micrographs of vitrified samples we obtained images revealing some details of the inner structure and, on some particles, a periodic structure of the envelope. (Fig. 1a-b) The inner structure has periodicities of about 2.5 nm, which is in agreement with that found by Lepault et al on vitrified samples of the phages lambda and T4.