Abstract
X-ray fiber diffraction method was used to deduce the molecular structure of tobacco mosaic virus. Multi- dimensional multiple isomorphous replacement method was applied to overcome the information loss by the cylindrical average in the fiber diffraction pattern, and some other developments in the analysis made it possible to build the molecular model of the whole virus particle. Protein- protein interaction and protein- RNA interaction found in the molecular structure gave us a clear understanding on the mechanism of self assembly.
