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Visualization of Virus Capsids

April 30, 2004
updated July 30, 2004

The following examples show the organization of subunits in virus capsid structures. They were made with the Multiscale extension to the Chimera interactive molecular graphics package (version 1.1917). These graphics capabilities are described in a poster and a paper (Structure (Camb). 2005 Mar;13(3):473-82).

Superposition of inner layers of Reovirus (yellow and cyan) and Bluetongue virus (orange and blue) capsids.

Structure alignments of homologous viral capsid proteins.

Images showing organization of capsid subunits.

Auto-generated images of all virus capsids from the Virus Particle Explorer (ViPER) web site.

Three-dimensional VRML models can be rotated with a web browser plug-in.

A three-dimensional virus model can be opened in Chimera (version >= 1.1947) from a web browser to interactively explore the structure at multiple resolutions.

The Chimera Image Gallery has more multiscale images of viruses and other large assemblies.

The aims of the Chimera Multiscale extension are described in a June 2004 poster and in slides from an October 2002 talk.