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