A protein coat that surrounds nucleic acid to form a structure similar to a virus capsid. Virus-like capsids are non-infectious and are encoded by endogenous (non-viral) genes. Fly and tetrapod Arc (ancestrally-related to retrotransposon Gag) are examples of proteins that can self-assemble into capsid-like structures which encapsulate Arc mRNA and mediate the intercellular transmission of RNA.
virus-like particle