Figure 3.

Octamer structure of the VP40 NTD bound the short RNA 5′-UGA-3′. (A) Full length VP40 can be destabilized to bind RNA in an octameric conformation mediated by the NTD (pdb code1H2C). An interactive view is available in the electronic version of the article.(B) Close-up of the sequence-specific RNA recognition (C) The N-terminal region of the VP40 NTD as well as the CTD need to dissociate from the core to facilitate octamer formation. The CTDs are connected by a long flexible linker allowing a more or less random positioning in solution (black arrows in A indicate their position).