Twinned crystals of adeno-associated virus serotype 3b prove suitable for structural studies.

Adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) are leading candidate vectors for gene-therapy applications. The AAV-3b capsid is closely related to the well characterized AAV-2 capsid (87% identity), but sequence and presumably structural differences lead to distinct cell-entry and immune-recognition properties. In an effort to understand these differences and to perhaps harness them, diffraction-quality crystals of purified infectious AAV-3b particles have been grown and several partial diffraction data sets have been recorded.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray structural studies of adeno-associated virus serotype 6.

Adeno-associated viruses are being developed as vectors for gene therapy and have been used in a number of clinical trials. Vectors to date have been based on the type species AAV-2, the structure of which was published in 2002. There is growing interest in modulating the cellular tropism and immune neutralization of AAV-2 with variants inspired by the properties of other serotypes.