We report here the spontaneous formation of lipid-bilayer-wrapped virus particles, following the injection of "naked" virus particles into the subphase of a Langmuir trough with a liquid monolayer of lipids at its air-water interface. The virus particles are those of the well-studied cowpea chlorotic mottle virus, CCMV, which are negatively charged at the pH 6 of the subphase; the lipids are a 9:1 mix of neutral DMPC and cationic CTAB molecules. Before adding CCMV particles to the subphase we establish the mixed lipid monolayer in its liquid-expanded state at a fixed pressure (17.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe assembly of most single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) viruses into icosahedral nucleocapsids is a spontaneous process driven by protein-protein and RNA-protein interactions. The precise nature of these interactions results in the assembly of extremely monodisperse and structurally indistinguishable nucleocapsids. In this work, by using a ssRNA plant virus (cowpea chlorotic mottle virus [CCMV]) as a charged nanoparticle we show that the diffusion of these nanoparticles from the bulk solution to the air/water interface is an irreversible adsorption process.
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