Fig. 1.

Schematic drawing of a model for Mimivirus, based principally on AFM images. a View perpendicular to the unique fivefold axis of the particle. b The stargate assembly. In a the model is presented in cross-section, and in b clockwise from exterior to interior as successive layers of structure are revealed. Most exterior (black) are the head proteins of the surface fibers that are attached to the surface fibers themselves (green). The surface fibers are attached to the anchor protein layer (blue spheres) that covers the icosahedral capsid (red spheres). Beneath the capsid is an additional layer of apparently disorganized protein (or possibly a lipid membrane studded with a variety of proteins; shown as orange spheres). The space between the inner surface of the capsid and the lipid bilayer sac (green) are the 7-nm fibers of indeterminate length (orange). Inside the membrane is the genomic DNA (black) with associated proteins (green). There are many other proteins within the membrane sac that are not directly bound to the nucleic acid (shown as pink). Reproduced from [23].