Dieter Blaas. Lab

Dieter Blaas Lab
Our group is interested in the early steps in infection of the host cell by human rhinoviruses, the main causative agent of the common cold. We study the specific recognition of viral serotypes by cellular receptors and analyse the interacting surfaces on the atomic level. Other topics are the internalization pathway and the mechanism of release of the viral genome into the cytosol. Finally, we want to unravel the basis of the evolution of two viral groups using different receptors al
The animation shows human rhinovirus serotype 2 with 5 individual V3 modules of the very-low density lipoprotein receptor (red) attached to each of the 12 vertices of the icosahedral capsid. Only VP1 (blue) is in contact with the receptors. The ring-like structure results from the close apposition of the N- and C-termini of adjacent modules suggesting that the natural receptors that contain various numbers of modules arranged in tandem, might adopt a similar conformation. In this case single receptor molecules would wrap around each five-fold axis resulting in a stoichiometry of virus to receptor of 1:12 (Verdaguer N, Fita I, Reithmayer M, Moser R, Blaas D., "X-ray structure of a minor group human rhinovirus bound to a fragment of its cellular receptor protein", Nature Struct Mol Biol. 11, 429-434 (2004) http://www.nature.com/nsmb/journal/v11/n5/abs/nsmb753.htbeit being closely related.