ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2012
Evidence that viral RNAs have evolved for efficient, two-stage packaging.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 86 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
86 citing papers in PubMed.
- Article
- Packaging of Single-Stranded RNA in Viruses and Virus-Like Particles.Annual review of biochemistry · 2026Review
- Review
- Disassembly of Virus-Like Particles and the Stabilizing Role of the Nucleic Acid Cargo.The journal of physical chemistry. B · 2025Article
- MS2 virus-like particles as a versatile platform for multi-disease vaccines: a review.Frontiers in immunology · 2025Review
- A multidisciplinary approach to the identification of the protein-RNA connectome in double-stranded RNA virus capsids.Nucleic acids research · 2023Article
- Viral RNA Is a Hub for Critical Host-Virus Interactions.Sub-cellular biochemistry · 2023Article
- Single-particle studies of the effects of RNA-protein interactions on the self-assembly of RNA virus particles.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Compositional complementarity between genomic RNA and coat proteins in positive-sense single-stranded RNA viruses.Nucleic acids research · 2022Article
- Programmable polymorphism of a virus-like particle.Communications materials · 2022Article
- Article
- Optical tweezer and TIRF microscopy for single molecule manipulation of RNA/DNA nanostructures including their rubbery property and single molecule counting.Biophysics reports · 2021Article
- In vitro functional analysis of gRNA sites regulating assembly of hepatitis B virus.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Similarities and Differences between NaJournal of chemical theory and computation · 2021Article
- Article
- In Vitro Assembly of Virus-Like Particles and Their Applications.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Assembly of infectious enteroviruses depends on multiple, conserved genomic RNA-coat protein contacts.PLoS pathogens · 2020Article
- Cryo-electron Microscopy Structure, Assembly, and Mechanics Show Morphogenesis and Evolution of Human Picobirnavirus.Journal of virology · 2020Article
- Review
- Multiple capsid protein binding sites mediate selective packaging of the alphavirus genomic RNA.Nature communications · 2020Article
26 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Genome packaging is an essential step in virus replication and a potential drug target. Single-stranded RNA viruses have been thought to encapsidate their genomes by gradual co-assembly with capsid subunits. In contrast, using a single molecule fluorescence assay to monitor RNA conformation and virus assembly in real time, with two viruses from differing structural families, we have discovered that packaging is a two-stage process. Initially, the genomic RNAs undergo rapid and dramatic (approximately 20-30%) collapse of their solution conformations upon addition of cognate coat proteins. The collapse occurs with a substoichiometric ratio of coat protein subunits and is followed by a gradual increase in particle size, consistent with the recruitment of additional subunits to complete a growing capsid. Equivalently sized nonviral RNAs, including high copy potential in vivo competitor mRNAs, do not collapse. They do support particle assembly, however, but yield many aberrant structures in contrast to viral RNAs that make only capsids of the correct size. The collapse is specific to viral RNA fragments, implying that it depends on a series of specific RNA-protein interactions. For bacteriophage MS2, we have shown that collapse is driven by subsequent protein-protein interactions, consistent with the RNA-protein contacts occurring in defined spatial locations. Conformational collapse appears to be a distinct feature of viral RNA that has evolved to facilitate assembly. Aspects of this process mimic those seen in ribosome assembly.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.