key: cord-267046-ewnjgps5 authors: Strauss, James H; Strauss, Ellen G title: Virus Evolution: How Does an Enveloped Virus Make a Regular Structure? date: 2001-04-06 journal: Cell DOI: 10.1016/s0092-8674(01)00291-4 sha: doc_id: 267046 cord_uid: ewnjgps5 nan E2 is ‫024ف‬ amino acids in size, of which about 360 residues form the ectodomain, whereas M is only about ancestral source. They propose a fit of E1 into the cryo-75 residues long, of which about 38 residues are present EM density of Semliki Forest virus determined to 9 Å in the ectodomain. Thus, one can imagine that an immaresolution (Mancini et al., 2000) . The paper by Pletnev ture flavivirion containing prM (about 170 residues) et al. (2001) shows that the bulk of E1 does not contribute rather than M might more resemble the alphavirus structo the outer portions of the spike but, instead, forms a ture, with short projecting spikes, but cleavage to M layer closely apposed to the lipid bilayer, analogous to removes the spikes. the position of E in the flavivirion. They also show that The Evolution of Enveloped Viruses E2 projects upward to the full-length of the spike. Thus, The parallels between the assembly of alphaviruses and E1 forms what has been called the skirt that surrounds flaviviruses and the similarities in structure revealed by the lipid bilayer and part of the lower domains of the the present studies suggest that an enveloped virus spikes, whereas E2 forms the projecting part of the with an icosahedral structure arose long ago and has spike. The absence of spikes in flaviviruses could then diverged into these two familes. Many other enveloped be due to a difference between the cleaved E2 and M. viruses whose structures are more or less known use quite different assembly mechanisms ( Virus evolution Virus Taxonomy: Seventh Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses