Published 25 April 2005. doi:10.1083/jcb.200412169
The Rockefeller University Press, 0021-9525 $8.00
JCB, Volume 169, Number 2, 269-283
Deep-etch EM reveals that the early poxvirus envelope is a single membrane bilayer stabilized by a geodetic "honeycomb" surface coat
John Heuser
Department of Cell Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110
Correspondence to J. Heuser: jheuser{at}cellbiology.wustl.edu
Three-dimensional "deep-etch" electron microscopy (DEEM) resolves a longstanding controversy concerning poxvirus morphogenesis. By avoiding fixative-induced membrane distortions that confounded earlier studies, DEEM shows that the primary poxvirus envelope is a single membrane bilayer coated on its external surface by a continuous honeycomb lattice. Freeze fracture of quick-frozen poxvirus-infected cells further shows that there is only one fracture plane through this primary envelope, confirming that it consists of a single lipid bilayer. DEEM also illustrates that the honeycomb coating on this envelope is completely replaced by a different paracrystalline coat as the poxvirus matures. Correlative thin section images of infected cells freeze substituted after quick-freezing, plus DEEM imaging of Tokuyasu-type cryo-thin sections of infected cells (a new application introduced here) all indicate that the honeycomb network on immature poxvirus virions is sufficiently continuous and organized, and tightly associated with the envelope throughout development, to explain how its single lipid bilayer could remain stable in the cytoplasm even before it closes into a complete sphere.
Abbreviations used in this paper: 3-D, three-dimensional; DEEM, deep-etch EM; IMV, intracellular mature virion; IV, immature virion.

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