Viroplasm

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A viroplasm is an inclusion body in a cell where viral replication/assembly occurs. They may be thought of as viral factories in the cell. Very little is understood about the mechanism of viroplasm formation. These appear electron-dense under the electron microscope, most likely due to high amounts of viral RNA in them.


Viroplasm where found in the cauliflower mosaic virus[1], Rotavirus [2] , vaccinia virus[3] and Rice dwarf virus (RDV) [4]/


  1. ^ Xiong, C; S Muller, G Lebeurier, L Hirth (1982). "Identification by immunoprecipitation of cauliflower mosaic virus in vitro major translation product with a specific serum against viroplasm protein.". EMBO J 1 (8): 971–976. 16453427. 
  2. ^ Nilsson, M; C H von Bonsdorff, K Weclewicz, J Cohen, L Svensson (1998- Mar- 15). "Assembly of viroplasm and virus-like particles of rotavirus by a Semliki Forest virus replicon.". Virology 242 (2): 255–65. doi:10.1006/viro.1997.8987. 9514960 doi:10.1006/viro.1997.8987. 
  3. ^ Szajner, P; A S Weisberg, E J Wolffe, B Moss (2001- Jul). "Vaccinia virus A30L protein is required for association of viral membranes with dense viroplasm to form immature virions.". Journal of virology 75 (13): 5752–61. doi:10.1128/JVI.75.13.5752-5761.2001. 11390577 doi:10.1128/JVI.75.13.5752-5761.2001. 
  4. ^ Wei, T; A Kikuchi, N Suzuki, T Shimizu, K Hagiwara, H Chen, T Omura (2006- Sep). "Pns4 of rice dwarf virus is a phosphoprotein, is localized around the viroplasm matrix, and forms minitubules.". Archives of virology 151 (9): 1701–12. doi:10.1007/s00705-006-0757-4. 16609816 doi:10.1007/s00705-006-0757-4. 
 This biology article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.