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There are 12 penton capsomeres, one at each vertex. A penton is not just a single ball-shaped molecule but always contains 5 copies of each capsid protein. It has 5 neighbouring capsomeres. There are a variable number of hexon capsomeres on each facets, depending on the size of the virus e.g. FMDV has none and adenoviruses have 20 x 12 = 240 hexons. A hexon has 6 copies of each capsid protein(s) with 6 neighbours. The number of different capsid proteins varies from 1 to 6 eg VP1-4 for FMDV. |