%0 Journal Article
%T Production of Platinum Atom Nanoclusters at One End of Helical Plant Viruses
%A Yuri Drygin
%A Olga Kondakova
%A Joseph Atabekov
%J Advances in Virology
%D 2013
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2013/746796
%X Platinum atom clusters (Pt nanoparticles, Pt-NPs) were produced selectively at one end of helical plant viruses, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and potato virus X (PVX), when platinum coordinate compounds were reduced chemically by borohydrides. Size of the platinum NPs depends on conditions of the electroless deposition of platinum atoms on the virus. Results suggest that the Pt-NPs are bound concurrently to the terminal protein subunits and the 5¡ä end of encapsidated TMV RNA. Thus, a special structure of tobacco mosaic virus and potato X virus particles with nanoparticles of platinum, which looks like a push-pin with platinum head and virus needle, was obtained. Similar results were obtained with ultrasonically fragmented TMV particles. By contrast, the Pt-NPs fully filled the central axial hole of in vitro assembled RNA-free TMV-like particles. We believe that the results presented here will be valuable in the fundamental understanding of interaction of viral platforms with ionic metals and in a mechanism of nanoparticles formation. 1. Introduction One current goal in nanobiotechnology is to investigate biological nanoplatforms capable of binding metal atoms with the aim of generating new bioinorganic materials for nanoelectronics and medicine. Helical plant viruses, in particular tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) and potato virus X (PVX), have been widely used as templates and scaffolds in nanotechnology [1¨C12]. TMV particles are rod-like with a diameter of 18£¿nm and modal length of 300£¿nm. They consist of 2130 identical 17.5£¿kDa protein subunits helically arranged around a cylindrical canal and closely packed into a rigid tube. The two-layer cylindrical substructure, each layer consisting of a ring of 17 molecules of coat protein (CP), is known as a ¡°disk,¡± and 16 1/3 molecules are present in each turn of the assembled helix. RNA is introduced between the CP turns and follows the helix of protein subunits [13, 14]. Apparently, the front stereochemical surface of terminal CP molecules of the helical TMV particle is not equivalent to inner surfaces of other CP subunits. It is known that in the absence of RNA the viral CP may be in vitro assembled into several types of aggregate. In particular, TMV CP can be in vitro assembled into virus-like particles (VLPs) that are structurally similar to native virions [15, 16]. The virions of another helical virus, PVX, are flexuous filaments with modal lengths in the range of 470¨C580£¿nm and a diameter of approximately 13£¿nm [17]. In this work, we found that ions of platinum coordinate compounds reduced by borohydrides
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