The Structure and Function of Triocornaviruses

约翰逊博士正在研究一种叫做三冠病毒的病毒家族的颗粒结构、稳定性和组装。分析方法将主要是x射线晶体学，尽管将采用各种生化方法来生产适合结晶的样品。将与分子遗传学和光谱学专家合作，充分利用晶体学技术和实验。总体目标将是使用这些结构来尝试设计解决功能的生物物理、生化和分子遗传学实验。研究表明，感染植物、昆虫和哺乳动物的病毒具有共同的结构和功能主题，尽管感染同一宿主的病毒之间存在显着和意想不到的差异。了解病毒的结构及其与功能的关系将使人们能够在分子水平上从结构和物理性质上将病毒相互联系起来，并将病毒与宿主联系起来

Dr. Johnson is studying particle structure, stability, and assembly in a family of viruses called the tricornaviruses. The method of analysis will be primarily X-ray crystallography, although a variety of biochemical methods will be employed to produce samples that are suitable for crystallization. Collaborations with experts in molecular genetics and spectroscopy will be undertaken to fully exploit the crystallographic technique and experiments. The overall goal will be to use these structures to attempt to design biophysical, biochemical and molecular genetic experiments that address function. Investigations have shown that viruses infecting plants, insects and mammals share common structural and functional themes although there are remarkable and unexpected differences between viruses infecting the same host. Understanding viral structures and their relationships to function will enable one to relate viruses to each other and to their hosts in terms of structural and physical properties at the molecular level.***