C-terminal domain on the outer surface of the Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus capsid is required for Sf9 cell binding and internalization.

We have shown that Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus (MrNV) was able to infect Sf9 cells and that MrNV virus-like particles (MrNV-VLPs) were capable nanocontainers for delivering nucleic acid-based materials. Here, we demonstrated that chymotryptic removal of a C-terminal peptide and its truncated variant (F344-MrNV-VLPs) exhibited a drastically reduced ability to interact and internalize into Sf9 cells. Electron microscopic observations revealed that the loss of C-terminal domain either from enzyme hydrolysis or genetic truncation did not affect the generated MrNV-VLPs' icosahedral conformation, but did drastically affect the VLPs' internalization ability into Sf9 cells.