3. Morphology and genomics of hantaviruses
Hantavirus virions are usually spherical with a quasi-symmetric icosahedral lattice (T=12). The diameter of the virions is 120−160 nm.31 The lipid bilayer of the viral envelope is about 5 nm thick. The surface spikes embedded in the viral envelope are composed of the glycoproteins Gn and Gc. Each spike is formed by a tetramer of Gn and Gc (Figure 1 ) extending from the lipid bilayer to about 10 nm. Inside the envelope are the nucleocapsids composed of many copies of the nucleocapsid protein N, which interact with the three segments of the viral genome and the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp).32