Structure of dengue virus: implications for flavivirus organization, maturation, and fusion.
Kuhn, R.J., Zhang, W., Rossmann, M.G., Pletnev, S.V., Corver, J., Lenches, E., Jones, C.T., Mukhopadhyay, S., Chipman, P.R., Strauss, E.G., Baker, T.S., Strauss, J.H.(2002) Cell 108: 717-725
- PubMed: 11893341 
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0092-8674(02)00660-8
- Primary Citation of Related Structures:  
1K4R - PubMed Abstract: 
The first structure of a flavivirus has been determined by using a combination of cryoelectron microscopy and fitting of the known structure of glycoprotein E into the electron density map. The virus core, within a lipid bilayer, has a less-ordered structure than the external, icosahedral scaffold of 90 glycoprotein E dimers. The three E monomers per icosahedral asymmetric unit do not have quasiequivalent symmetric environments. Difference maps indicate the location of the small membrane protein M relative to the overlaying scaffold of E dimers. The structure suggests that flaviviruses, and by analogy also alphaviruses, employ a fusion mechanism in which the distal beta barrels of domain II of the glycoprotein E are inserted into the cellular membrane.
Organizational Affiliation: 
Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA. rjkuhn@bragg.bio.purdue.edu