題名: Surface ultrastructure of SARS Coronavirus at the nanometer scale Revealed by Atomic Force Microscopy
作者: Shiming Lin;Adam Shih-Yuan Lee;Chih-Kung Lee
貢獻者: Center for Optoelectronic Biomedicine;Institute of Applied Mechanics National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan;Department of Chemistry, Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan
日期: 2003-09-13
上傳時間: 2009-12-09T05:24:56Z 出版者: 臺中健康暨管理學院
摘要: Knowledge of the surface structure of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) is a key to gain a detailed understanding of their functions in pathogenesis.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used to probe the surface nanostructures of SARS-CoV. Single crown-like virion was directly visualized and quantitative measurements of the dimensions for the structural proteins were provided. A corona of large, distinctive spikes in the envelope were measured after chemical treatment. High-resolution images revealed that the surface of each single SARS-CoV was
surrounded with at least 15 spherical spikes having a diameter of 7.29 ? 0.73 nm, which is in close agreement with that of S glycoproteins earlier predicted through the genomes of SARS-CoV. This study represents the first direct characterization of the surface ultrastructures of SARS-CoV particles at the nanometer scale and offers new prospects for mapping viral surface properties. Also, this study has created a way to break down the new infectious agent into small components.
