Cross section through an ebola virus particle, illustration.

Watercolour and ink on paper illustration of a cross section through an ebola virus particle. The virus is surrounded by a membrane (pink/purple) stolen from an infected cell, and studded with Ebola glycoproteins (turquoise; extend outwards and look like trees rooted in the membrane). A layer of matrix proteins (blue) support the membrane on the inside, and hold a cylindrical nucleocapsid (green) at the centre, which stores and delivers the RNA genome (yellow). The width of the virus is approximately 100 nanometres to the outer edge of the membrane.