September 22, 2000

1 min read

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Armored Viruses

By Kate Wong

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Image:Courtesy William Wikoff/Scripps Institute of Research

Scientists have found a knight in shining armor--in the virus kingdom. According to a report published today in the journal Science, close scrutiny of a virus dubbed HK97 revealed for the first time a protein coat structured precisely like medieval chain mail. The discovery could lead to new designs in nanotechnology.

Thankfully, this armored virus does not infect humans. Rather it belongs to a class of viruses known as bacteriophages, which only infect bacteria. Because of the virus's extremely small size (its head is thousands of times narrower than a human hair) researchers turned to electron microscopy and x-ray crystallography to examine its exterior. HK97's coat, they found, consists of 72 interlocking rings of protein--formidable protection for the virus's DNA. "Its protein rings are cross-linked in a manner similar to the five-ring Olympic symbol," notes Hiro Tsuruta of Stanford University. "Together the rings form a rigid, spherical cage shaped like a 20-sided soccer ball."

The viral armor may well function similarly to the ensembles of medieval knights, which offered both protection and freedom of movement. "This virus has developed a very clever way of keeping its DNA intact," Tsuruta observes. Nanotechnology investigators may take inspiration from this clever configuration. "People are looking at viruses as containers," remarks Scripps Research Institute biologist John E. Johnson, "and the chain mail structure could provide a novel way to create a container that's very thin yet stable."

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she has focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social

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