TMV Particles: The Journey From Fundamental Studies to Bionanotechnology Applications

Abstract

Ever since its initial characterization in the 19th century, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) has played a prominent role in the development of modern virology and molecular biology. In particular, research on the three-dimensional structure of the virus particles and the mechanism by which these assemble from their constituent protein and RNA components has made TMV a paradigm for our current view of the morphogenesis of self-assembling structures, including viral particles. More recently, this knowledge has been applied to the development of novel reagents and structures for applications in biomedicine and bionanotechnology. In this article, we review how fundamental science has led to TMV being at the vanguard of these new technologies.

Emerging Molecular Links Between Plant Photomorphogenesis and Virus Resistance

“…The ss (+) RNA TMV was the first virus described ( Scholthof, 2004 ). Its genome consists of four ORFs, which encode a replicase, an RdRP, a MP, and a CP ( Lomonossoff and Wege, 2018 ). Similar to most (+) RNA viruses, TMV replicates in host cytoplasm via a (−) RNA intermediate ( Scholthof, 2004 ).…”

Biological and evolutionary concepts for nanoscale engineering

“…The nucleoprotein assemblies of tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) are particularly intriguing and offer an expanding design space for nanoparticle engineering. Whereas native TMV forms a hollow nanotube of defined length, bottom‐up designs have yielded longer or shorter tubes, spherical particles, stellate bio‐inorganic hybrid colloids, and falcate structures .…”

Turnip Mosaic Virus Coat Protein Deletion Mutants Allow Defining Dispensable Protein Domains for ‘in Planta’ eVLP Formation

“…In the case of plant viruses, our present knowledge about the mechanisms involved is rather limited. Considering plant viruses with tubular virions, all of them non-enveloped ss(+)RNA viruses, tobacco mosaic virus (rigid virions) is the most studied and best known [ 1 , 2 ]. Potato virus X (flexuous virions), has also been investigated in this regard [ 3 ].…”

“…Potato virus X (flexuous virions), has also been investigated in this regard [ 3 ]. Unsurprisingly, particles of these two viruses are among the most widely used for nanobiotechnological developments based on this knowledge [ 2 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], although none of them is able to form complete particles in the absence of a guiding RNA, the viral RNA in the case of natural infections [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”