Related papers: Mechanisms of virus assembly
Multipartite viruses replicate through a puzzling evolutionary strategy. Their genome is segmented into two or more parts, and encapsidated in separate particles that appear to propagate independently. Completing the replication cycle,…
The present study focuses on the receptor driven endocytosis typical of viral entry into a cell. A locally increased density of receptors at the time of contact between the cell and the virus is necessary in this case. The virus is…
Myriad viruses use positive-strand RNA molecules as their genomes. Far from being only a repository of genetic material, viral RNA performs numerous other functions mediated by its physical structure and chemical properties. In this…
Receptor-mediated endocytosis is an ubiquitous process through which cells internalize biological or synthetic nanoscale objects, including viruses, unicellular parasites, and nanomedical vectors for drug or gene delivery. In passive…
The self-assembly of molecules at surfaces can be caused by a range of physical mechanisms. Assembly can be driven by intermolecular forces, or molecule-surface forces, or both; it can result in structures that are in equilibrium or that…
Biological membranes constitute boundaries of cells and cell organelles. Physico-chemical mechanisms at the atomic scale are dictated by protein-lipid interaction strength, lipid composition, lipid distribution in the vicinity of the…
Membrane organization is essential for cellular functions such as signal transduction and membrane trafficking. A major challenge is to understand the lateral heterogeneous structures in membranes and membrane fluidity in the presence of…
An overview is presented of the various phases predicted to occur when gases are absorbed within a bundle of carbon nanotubes. The behavior may be characterized by an effective dimensionality, which depends on the species and the…
The results of a numerical investigation of fluidized beds of spherical particles in a narrow vertical cylindrical pipe, with particular attention to the spontaneous settling along the wall, are reported. Starting from a steady fluidized…
On the example of exceptional families of viruses we i) show the existence of a completely new type of matter organization in nanoparticles, in which the regions with a chiral pentagonal quasicrystalline order of protein positions are…
Theories of protein crystallization based on spheres that form close-packed crystals predict optimal assembly within a `slot' of second virial coefficients and enhanced assembly near the metastable liquid-vapor critical point. However, most…
We present modeling approaches to explain mechanisms of control of uniformity (narrow distribution) of sizes and shapes in synthesis of nanosize crystals and micron-size colloids. We consider those situations when the nanocrystals are…
Entry of micro- or nano-sized objects into cells or vesicles made of lipid membranes occur in many processes such as entry of viruses in host cells, microplastics pollution, drug delivery or biomedical imaging. Here, we investigated the…
We examine the limits on viral composition that are set by the electrostatic interactions effected by the charge on the viral proteins, the single-stranded viral RNA molecule and monovalent salt ions in the solution. Within the mean-field…
We show that the icosahedral packings of protein capsomeres proposed by Caspar and Klug for spherical viruses become unstable to faceting for sufficiently large virus size, in analogy with the buckling instability of disclinations in…
Lipid rafts are hypothesized to facilitate protein interaction, tension regulation, and trafficking in biological membranes, but the mechanisms responsible for their formation and maintenance are not clear. Insights into many other…
The majority of viruses are organised according to the structural blueprints of the seminal Caspar-Klug theory. However, there are a number of notable exceptions to this geometric design principle. Prominent examples are the cancer-causing…
We develop a clear theoretical description of radial swelling in virus-like particles which delineates the importance of electrostatic contributions to swelling in absence of any conformational changes. The model couples the elastic…
We characterize the equilibrium thermodynamics of a thick polymer confined in a spherical region of space. This is used to gain insight into the DNA packaging process. The experimental reference system for the present study is the recent…
Using computer simulations we show that lipid membranes can mediate linear aggregation of spherical nanoparticles binding to it for a wide range of biologically relevant bending rigidities. This result is in net contrast with the isotropic…