Anatomy of a virus

A mass spectrometry-based analysis of influenza virions provides a detailed view of their composition. A spherical influenza virion is an orderly hodgepodge comprised of hundreds of proteins that originate from both the virus and its host. A new mass spectrometry analysis, published today (September 16) in Nature Communications, has yielded the most complete picture to date of the identities, arrangements, and ratios of proteins in influenza virions. Previously, only the most common and conspicuous influenza virion proteins were well characterized. Compared to the perfect icosahedrons of adenovirus, for example, irregular influenza particles are difficult to crystallize and to study structurally, according to the lead author of this latest work, Edward Hutchinson, a postdoctoral research assistant working with virologist Ervin Fodor at the University of Oxford. “When you look at influenza, you get things that look kind of like moldy kidney beans,” said Hutchinson. “Round shapes of varying morphologies with a fringe of glycoproteins...