Direct visualization of single virus restoration after damage in real time

We use the nano-dissection capabilities of atomic force microscopy to induce structural alterations on individual virus capsids in liquid milieu. We fracture the protein shells either with single nanoindentations or by increasing the tip-sample interaction force in amplitude modulation dynamic mode. The normal behavior is that these cracks persist in time. However, in very rare occasions they self-recuperate to retrieve apparently unaltered virus particles. In this work, we show the topographical evolution of three of these exceptional events occurring in T7 bacteriophage capsids. Our data show that single nanoindentation produces a local recoverable fracture that corresponds to the deepening of a capsomer. In contrast, imaging in dynamic mode induced cracks that separate the virus morphological subunits. In both cases, the breakage patterns follow intratrimeric loci.