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Article: Mechanical Properties of Murine Leukemia Virus Particles: Effect of Maturation
- Article from:
- Biophysical Journal
- Article date:
- July 15, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Biophysical Society Jul 15, 2006. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ABSTRACT
After budding from the host cell, retroviruses undergo a process of internal reorganization called maturation, which is prerequisite to infectivity. Viral maturation is accompanied by dramatic morphological changes, which are poorly understood in physical/mechanistic terms. Here, we study the mechanical properties of live mature and immature murine leukemia virus particles by indentation-type experiments conducted with an atomic force microscope tip. We find that both mature and immature particles have an elastic shell. Strikingly, the virus shell is twofold stiffer in the immature (0.68 N/m) than the mature (0.31 N/m) form. However, finite-element simulation shows that the average ...