TMV Particles: The Journey From Fundamental Studies to Bionanotechnology Applications
Ever since its initial characterization in the 19th century, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) has played a prominent role in the development of modern virology and molecular biology. In particular, research on the three-dimensional structure of the virus particles and the mechanism by which these assemble from their constituent protein and RNAcomponents has made TMV a paradigm for our current view of the morphogenesisof self-assembling structures, including viral particles. More recently, this knowledgehas been applied to the development of novel reagents and structures for applicationsin biomedicine and bionanotechnology. In this article, we review how fundamentalscience has led to TMV being at the vanguard of these new technologies.