Forum 10/24/2002

“Designing mutants of CPMV with Different Chemical Reactivity”

Erica Strable, Graduate Student – The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA

Mutants of CPMV were generated inserting a pair of cysteine residues on the surface of the capsid having different spatial separations.  The location of the inserted cysteine residues affects the chemical reactiviy of the thiol groups.  In addition the differential spacing between cysteines allows each mutant to be uniquely addressed with various crosslinking reagents.