Figure 18.
A comparison of the structural changes of CCMV which occur during maturation using point arrays. Each capsid is radially colored. (a) Exterior view of CCMV native state, showing the prominent role that hexameric features play in determining the point array fit. (b) The interior of CCMV natives state. There are point array locations (orange) in contact with the interior surface of the pentamer, as was seen in Figure 17. (c) The swollen CCMV capsid is approximately a uniformly scaled native state, though the orientation of the hexamer chains rotate slightly and the center of the hexamer opens up at the top and closes at the bottom, allowing the sister point array to fit the capsid. The overall effect of this reorganization is to create holes in the protein capsid. (d) The interior view of the mature capsid showing how the hexamer unit changes to accommodate a new point (yellow) after maturation.