Structures of filamentous viruses infecting hyperthermophilic archaea explain DNA stabilization in extreme environments.
Fengbin Wang, Diana P Baquero, Leticia C Beltran, Zhangli Su, Tomasz Osinski, Weili Zheng, David Prangishvili, Mart Krupovic, Edward H EgelmanAbstract
Living organisms expend metabolic energy to repair and maintain their genomes, while viruses protect their genetic material by completely passive means. We have used cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to solve the atomic structures of two filamentous double-stranded DNA viruses that infect archaeal hosts living in nearly boiling acid: