Structure of Cowpea mottle virus: a consensus in the genus Carmovirus

Cowpea mottle virus (CPMoV) is a T = 3 virus that belongs to Carmovirus genus of the Tombusviridae family. Here, we report the crystal structure of CPMoV determined to a resolution of 7.0 angstroms. The structures and sequences of three Carmoviruses, CPMoV, Turnip crinkle virus (TCV), and Carnation mottle virus (CarMV) have been compared to TBSV from the Tombusvirus genus. CPMoV, TCV, and CarMV all have a deletion in betaC strand in the S domain relative to TBSV that may be distinctive to the genus. Although CPMoV has an elongated C-terminus like TBSV, it does not interact with the icosahedrally related P domain as observed in TBSV. In CPMoV, the termini of A and B interact with the icosahedrally related shell domains of A and C, respectively, to form a chain of interactions around the 5-fold axes. The C subunit terminus does not, however, interact with the B subunit because of quasi-equivalent differences in the P domain orientations.