Rotavirus Cell Entry
Philip R. Dormitzer
from: Segmented Double-stranded RNA Viruses: Structure and Molecular Biology (Edited by: John T. Patton). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2008)
Abstract
Rotavirus cell entry is mediated by a series of molecular interactions and rearrangements. While we now have an initial map of the rotavirus entry pathway, this map is far from complete. Some steps in rotavirus entry, such as proteolytic priming, initial attachment, and virion uncoating, correspond to well-understood steps in the entry pathways of other viruses, allowing extrapolation from data specific to rotavirus. However, the central event in rotavirus entry, the passage of a large non-enveloped particle through a lipid bilayer, though also a necessary step in some other viral entry pathways, is not well understood for any non-enveloped virus. Structural data indicate that the rotavirus outer capsid protein, VP4, undergoes a fold-back rearrangement associated with a two-to-three fold reorganization of the protruding portion of the VP4 spike. While the function of this molecular event has not been determined experimentally, its resemblance to the fusogenic rearrangements of enveloped virus fusion proteins suggests a shared element between the entry mechanisms of enveloped viruses and a non-enveloped virus read more ...
