Vaccinia virus (VACV or VV) is a large, complex, enveloped virus belonging to the poxvirus family. It has a linear, double-stranded DNA genome approximately 190 kbp in length, which encodes approximately 250 genes. The dimensions of the virion are roughly 360 × 270 × 250 nm, with a mass of approximately 5–10 fg. The vaccinia virus is the source of the modern smallpox vaccine, which the World Health Organisation used to eradicate smallpox in a global vaccination campaign in 1958–1977. Although smallpox no longer exists in the wild, vaccinia virus is still studied widely by scientists as a tool for gene therapy and genetic engineering. Molecular characterization of the transcriptional machinery of poxvirus remains a great challenge due to its intrinsic complexity and dynamics. Here you can see a very recent example of scientific efforts to characterize the way how poxvirus drive their replication cycle, by showing the structure of the vaccinia virus transcription initiation complex determined by CryoEM (PDB code: 7AOZ)
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #poxvirus ... #vaccinia ... #transcription ... #replication ... #cycle ... #cryoem
Rendered with @proteinimaging and polished with @corelphotopaint
#molecularart ... #immolecular ... #poxvirus ... #vaccinia ... #transcription ... #replication ... #cycle ... #cryoem
Rendered with @proteinimaging and polished with @corelphotopaint
