2.5 Homology modeling of the capsid protein VP7 of the G8
strain
A homology model of the outer capsid protein VP7 was constructed using
the G3 VP7 trimer in complex with a neutralizing Fab (PDB: 3FMG) as a
template. Amino acid sequences of the target and template demonstrated
high sequence similarity of 87%, indicating that the 3FMG was a
suitable template for generating the comparative model. The VP7 model of
G8 was then predicted using Chimera interface to Modeller. The trimer
model of the G8 virion was created by superimposing each monomer model
with each chain in the trimeric structure of 3FMG.PDB1 biological
assembly 1 using ChimeraX. The trimer shape of the VP7 homology model
was visualized, and the amino acid substitutions on the exposed surface
of the outer capsid structure were colored and labelled using Chimera.