Tightly packed in its shell: Even minimal mutations stop viruses from packing RNA into capsids
Tuesday, January 6, 2015 - 03:10
in Biology & Nature
A study, in which the International School for Advanced Studies collaborated with the Josef Stefan Institute of Ljubljana, analyzed how genome mutations of RNA viruses tend to be lethal for these infectious agents. It takes very little to make the RNA too messy and bulky to fit into the capsid—the shell that contains the viral genome—and by doing so disrupt the reproductive process.