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. 2022 Oct 10;13:5980. doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33664-4

Fig. 5. The super-complexes of G trimers visualized by subtomogram averaging and the relationship between the spatial organization of OM and G.

Fig. 5

a Averaged density maps of G trimer in prefusion conformation. Images in the second and third row are orthogonal slice views; locations are indicated by green and magenta dashed lines in the first image. No adjacent densities show in the orthogonal views. b, c Averaged density maps of G trimer in postfusion conformation before classification and G trimers classified by different numbers of neighboring G trimers (super-complexes). b The averaged density map of all subtomograms. c The averaged density maps of G trimer with 0 (first column), 1 (second column), 2 (third column) and 3 (fourth column) neighboring G trimers. Images in the first row are side views of the averages; images in the second and third row are orthogonal slice views; locations are indicated by blue and golden dashed lines in the first image. d Distribution of the distances of the first five nearest neighbors for each G trimer. The dashed curve shows the fitting of a three-term Gaussian model. The second peak (113.4 Å) is between the widths of hexagon (117.6 Å) and pentagon (109.8 Å), which have an identical side length (67.9 Å, the first peak), indicating a mixture of hexagonal and pentagonal tiles. Distances between neighboring subunits (e) and different hexagons at different radial positions based on geometric consideration (f). Each dot on a hexagon represents the intersection point on the N, IM or OM cylinder by the radial projection line connecting the center of the VSV cylinder to a G subunit on the VSV envelope. Note that the indicated distance between G subunits matches those observed in our tomogram shown in (Fig. 4d) and in the crystal structure (Supplementary Fig. 3d). g, h Hexagonal arrangement of G trimers in both prefusion and postfusion conformations. The distances between OMs underneath the membrane match the distances between neighboring DIV pairs of prefusion G trimers outside the membrane.