Construction of a Cylindrical HIV Capsid
This movie shows a cylinder constructed of HIV capsid "CA" proteins, which is being simulated to help us understand the detailed interactions between the CA proteins. Normally, HIV capsids are cone-shaped structures built from hexameric and pentameric CA protein oligomers, but cylindrical structures like the one shown here, can spontaneously assemble in lab situations. This cylindrical HIV capsid was constructed to match experimental data, and is a first step towards building a realistic atomic model of a "real-life" conical HIV capsid.
See this site for more information:
http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/HIV
Related papers:
Yeager, M. (2011) Design of in Vitro Symmetric Complexes and Analysis by Hybrid Methods Reveal Mechanisms of HIV Capsid Assembly. Journal of Molecular Biology, 410, 534-552
Pornillos, O., Ganser-Pornillos, B., and Yeager, M. (2011) Atomic-level modelling of the HIV capsid. Nature, 469, 424-427.