In collaboration with the Institute of Integrative Biology of the Cell (I2BC), the Laboratoire Léon Brillouin and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, our team has elucidated the nonequilibrium self-assembly dynamics of an icosahedral plant virus. Starting from the purified protein subunits and the RNA genome, we have probed the spontaneous reconstitution of the virus by time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering with a high spatiotemporal resolution. The genome acts as an assembly template by rapidly capturing the subunits, which subsequently self-organize into a protective shell. The results have been published in Nature Communications.
Contact : Guillaume Tresset