Assembly of single-shelled cores and double-shelled virus-like particles after baculovirus expression of major structural proteins P3, P7 and P8 of Rice dwarf virus

1 Laboratory of Virology, National Agricultural Research Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8666, Japan 2 Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan Correspondence Toshihiro Omura toomura{at}affrc.go.jp Expression of the core capsid protein P3 of Rice dwarf virus in a baculovirus system resulted in the formation of single-shelled core-like particles in insect cells in the absence of any other capsid proteins. Double-shelled virus-like particles were also observed upon mixing or co-expression of P3 and the major outer capsid protein P8, suggesting that P3 and P8 have the ability to form double-shelled particles both in vivo and in vitro . Core protein P7 expressed in a similar manner was incorporated into the virus-like particles.