Different representations of the CCMV capsid and its subunits.

(A) Render of the whole CCMV viral capsid, highlighting pentamer of dimers (POD) (red and blue) plus the flanking CC dimers (green). The type A chains in the POD are colored in red, while the type B chains are colored in blue. (B) Cartoon representation of the core regions for a dimer (residue 14 to 142 for each chain - without the flexible tails). This figure draws emphasis to the “hinge” (arrow points to the region) between the two capsomers, that enables them to rotate relative to each other. (C) Pentamer of dimers (red and blue) plus flanking CC dimers (green) highlighting the asymmetric unit (bottom in cartoon representation). (D) The defined internal axes (which are loosely based on the gyration tensor of the capsomer) for generating the relative orientation maps (see text). The center of mass (COM) of C atoms of residues 69–71, 92 and 122–124 defines the X-axis (red), the COM of the C atoms of residues 20–21 and 134–135 defines the Y-axis (yellow) and the COM of the C atoms of residues 56–58 and 99–100 defines the Z-axis (blue).