Electron Microscopy for Structural Determination and Analysis of Viruses

Abstract

Viruses are known to be associated with large-scale, dynamic conformational changes that take place to facilitate cell entry and genome delivery. It is also known that a replication machinery is involved in the advanced stage of the infectious cycle that enables to read and synthesize nucleic acid strands. This process results in the generation of new copies of genetic material. In this process, the function of structural proteins helps to assemble and package the appropriate contents to produce new infectious particles. Lately, there has been a great deal of research interest on structural elucidation of these events. This interest is primarily driven by the significance of virus structural identification, which helps understand these processes and also their inhibition by antiviral agents such as neutralizing antibodies and drugs. To this end, the development of electron microscopy (EM) techniques for studies in virology has played a major role for structural determination and analysis of viruses. In this mini-review, we have highlighted some of the latest developments in this field. We have briefly described important role of EM in virology. We have also discussed notable application examples of EM in elucidating various virus structures to gain insights into identification of deadly pathogens and other infectious agents and outbreaks along with anti-viral developmental strategies.