Preface Viral replication is rapid and robust, but it is far from a chaotic process. Instead, successful production of infectious progeny requires that events occur in the correct place and at the correct time. Rotavirus, a segmented double-stranded RNA virus of the Reoviridae family, seems to govern its replication through ordered disassembly and assembly of a triple-layered icosahedral capsid. In recent years, high-resolution structural data have provided unprecedented insight into these events. In this Review, we explore the current understanding of rotavirus replication and how it compares to other Reoviridae family members.

Summary The crystal structure of rotavirus VP7 bound with the Fab from a neutralizing monoclonal shows the mechanism by which members of a large class of neutralizing antibodies inhibit rotavirus infection, indicates how withdrawal of Ca2+ ions becomes an uncoating trigger during cell entry, and provides the “first draft” of a design for subunit immunogens. Rotavirus outer-layer protein VP7 is a principal target of protective antibodies. Removal of free Ca2+ dissociates the VP7 trimer, releases it from the virion, and initiates penetration-inducing conformational changes in the other outer-layer protein, VP4. We report the crystal structure of VP7 bound with the Fab fragment of a neutralizing monoclonal antibody. The Fab binds across the outer surface of the intersubunit contact, which is stabilized by two Ca2+ sites. Mutations that escape neutralization by other antibodies suggest that the same region bears the epitopes of most neutralizing antibodies. The monovalent Fab is sufficient to neutralize infectivity. We propose that neutralizing antibodies against VP7 act by stabilizing the trimer, thereby inhibiting the uncoating trigger for VP4 rearrangement. A disulfide-linked trimer is a potential subunit immunogen.

Assembly of the rotavirus outer capsid is the final step of a complex pathway. In vivo, the later steps include a maturational membrane penetration that is dependent on the scaffolding activity of a viral nonstructural protein. In vitro, simply adding the recombinant outer capsid proteins VP4 and VP7 to authentic doublelayered rotavirus subviral particles (DLPs) in the presence of calcium and acidic pH increases infectivity by a factor of up to 10 7 , yielding particles as infectious as authentic purified virions. VP4 must be added before VP7 for high-level infectivity. Steep dependence of infectious recoating on VP4 concentration suggests that VP4-VP4 interactions, probably oligomerization, precede VP4 binding to particles. Trypsin sensitivity analysis identifies two populations of VP4 associated with recoated particles: properly mounted VP4 that can be specifically primed by trypsin, and nonspecifically associated VP4 that is degraded by trypsin. A full complement of properly assembled VP4 is not required for efficient infectivity. Minimal dependence of recoating on VP7 concentration suggests that VP7 binds DLPs with high affinity. The parameters for efficient recoating and the characterization of recoated particles suggest a model in which, after a relatively weak interaction between oligomeric VP4 and DLPs, VP7 binds the particles and locks VP4 in place. Recoating will allow the use of infectious modified rotavirus particles to explore rotavirus assembly and cell entry and could lead to practical applications in novel immunization strategies.To initiate rotavirus infection, the nonenveloped, icosahedral, triple-layered particle (TLP or virion) must translocate a large transcriptionally active subviral particle, the double-layered particle (DLP), across a membrane and into the cytoplasm of a target cell. The DLP consists of concentric VP2 and VP6 icosahedral protein shells, which encapsidate 11 doublestranded RNA genome segments, the viral polymerase (VP1), and a capping enzyme (VP3). Biochemical and structural studies indicate that conformational rearrangements in VP4 and VP7, the two proteins that make up the outermost shell of the TLP, deliver the DLP into the cytoplasm. The dissociation of trimers of the plate-like protein VP7 in low-calcium environments mediates uncoating in vitro (17, 51). The spike protein VP4 is anchored in the DLP and protrudes through the VP7 layer (53,58). This protein undergoes a fold-back rearrangement that resembles the fusogenic rearrangements of enveloped virus fusion proteins (18), although the function of the VP4 conformational change has yet to be demonstrated experimentally.Because VP4 and VP7 are both targets of neutralizing antibodies, understanding the mechanism of cell entry is linked to understanding protection against rotavirus gastroenteritis, which kills approximately 500,000 children each year (43). The development of efficient techniques to incorporate recombinant VP4 and VP7 into infectious rotavirus virions would provide powerful tools to investigate how these ...