Figure 2.

The L001 and AAV9 Capsid Structures

(A and B) Capsid surface density maps of AAV9 based on the X-ray structure coordinates (A) and capsid surface density from the cryo-reconstructed map of L001 (B), respectively. Both maps are radially colored from the center of the particle according to the color key shown. (C) Superposition of the AAV9 (brown) and L001 (gray) capsid surface density maps (shown in A and B). Gray density is observed on top of the 3-fold protrusions at the site of the peptide insertion. (D) Surface density (in gray) from a difference map subtracting AAV9 from L001 (in the Chimera program). A triangle, depicting the viral asymmetric unit, is shown, and the icosahedral 2-fold, 3-fold, and 5-fold axes are denoted by an oval, a triangle, and a pentagon, respectively, in (A)–(D). The maps were all contoured at a sigma (α) threshold of 1.0. The images were all generated in the Chimera program.⁴²