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.

中文翻译：

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直接可视化单个病毒损坏后的实时恢复


我们利用原子力显微镜的纳米解剖能力来诱导液体环境中单个病毒衣壳的结构改变。我们通过单个纳米压痕或通过在振幅调制动态模式下增加尖端-样品相互作用力来破坏蛋白质壳。正常现象是这些裂纹会随着时间的推移而持续存在。然而，在极少数情况下，它们会自我恢复以恢复明显未改变的病毒颗粒。在这项工作中，我们展示了 T7 噬菌体衣壳中发生的三个异常事件的拓扑演化。我们的数据表明，单个纳米压痕会产生与壳粒加深相对应的局部可恢复断裂。相比之下，动态模式成像会引起裂纹，将病毒形态亚基分开。在这两种情况下，断裂模式均遵循三聚体内基因座。