CPB 697 RESEARCH SEMINAR
Yadvinder Singh Ahi, BVSc & AH
Graduate Student in Molecular Virology
Department of Comparative Pathobiology
“Study Of Adenovirus Assembly Process”
Thursday, April 24, 2008
VPTH
112
3:30
pm
Abstract:
Adenoviruses consist of a non-enveloped, icosahedral capsid enclosing ~36 Kb linear, dsDNA genome. The mechanism of adenovirus assembly is not fully understood yet. Initiation of assembly process involves formation of the empty capsids and their recognition by the viral DNA, which is packaged beginning at the left end. The packaging domain, located between 200 and 400 nucleotides from the left end of genome, consists of seven A repeats, designated as A1 to A7. Adenoviral proteins including IVa2, L1 52/55 K and L4 22 K are known to interact with each other and with the packaging domain to form a multi-protein complex on the packaging domain. The IVa2 protein, required for assembly of both empty capsids and mature virions, forms a multimeric complex on the packaging domain and mediates a connection between adenoviral genome and packaging machinery. The protein L1 52/55 K interacts with the packaging domain indirectly through interaction with IVa2 protein. Infection with L1 52/55 K defective virus results in accumulation of empty capsids indicating its role in packaging. The major adenovirus core protein precursor pVII also interacts with IVa2 and L1 52/55 K proteins. I plan to investigate the essential components of adenovirus assembly process by in-vitro assembly of infectious virus particles.