Structural basis for packaging the dimeric genome of Moloney murine leukaemia virus

All retroviruses specifically package two copies of their genomes during virus assembly, a requirement for strand-transfer-mediated recombination during reverse transcription1,2. Genomic RNA exists in virions as dimers, and the overlap of RNA elements that promote dimerization and encapsidation suggests that these processes may be coupled3,4,5. Both processes are mediated by the nucleocapsid domain (NC) of the retroviral Gag polyprotein3. Here...