Related papers: Virus Assembly Pathways inside a Host Cell
The Watson-Crick complementary properties of DNA make DNA a useful tool for the self-assembly of various target complexes. Concepts from graph theory can be used to model the self-assembling process in which the vertices of the graph…
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…
The eukaryotic cell nucleus harbors the DNA genome that is organized in a dynamic chromatin network and embedded in a viscous crowded fluid. This environment directly affects enzymatic reactions and target search processes that access the…
We have functionalized the sides of fd bacteriophage virions with oligonucleotides to induce DNA hybridization driven self-assembly of high aspect ratio filamentous particles. Potential impacts of this new structure range from an entirely…
Large protein complexes are assembled from protein subunits to form a specific structure. In our theoretic work, we propose that assembly into the correct structure could be reliably achieved through an assembly line with a specific…
We examine the role of electrostatic interactions in the assembly of empty spherical viral capsids. The charges on the protein subunits that make the viral capsid mutually interact and are expected to yield electrostatic repulsion acting…
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…
Nanoparticles introduced in living cells are capable of strongly promoting the aggregation of peptides and proteins. We use here molecular dynamics simulations to characterise in detail the process by which nanoparticle surfaces catalyse…
The study research presented hereafter shows a new methodology to reveal traces of Viral particles thanks to their own chemical structure such as P31, an element making up part of the structure of RNA, a type of nucleic acid, such as in a…
The ejection of DNA from a bacterial virus (``phage'') into its host cell is a biologically important example of the translocation of a macromolecular chain along its length through a membrane. The simplest mechanism for this motion is…
A coarse-grained computational model is used to investigate the effect of a fluctuating fluid membrane on the dynamics of patchy-particle assembly into virus capsid-like cores. Results from simulations for a broad range of parameters are…
The unconstrained genomic DNA of bacteria forms a coil, which volume exceeds 1000 times the volume of the cell. Since prokaryotes lack a membrane-bound nucleus, in sharp contrast with eukaryotes, the DNA may consequently be expected to…
A major part of the interactions involved in the assembly and stability of icosahedral, positive-sense single-stranded RNA (ssRNA+) viruses is electrostatic in nature, as can be inferred from the strong $pH$- and salt-dependence of their…
Physical properties of capsids of plant and animal viruses are important factors in capsid self-assembly, survival of viruses in the extracellular environment, and their cell infectivity. Virus shells can have applications as nanocontainers…
RNA viruses form genetically diverse populations structured as mutant spectra, or quasispecies, whose internal organization influences their evolutionary and adaptive dynamics. While genetic diversity has been extensively characterized, the…
Transcriptional activity has been shown to relate to the organization of chromosomes in the eukaryotic nucleus and in the bacterial nucleoid. In particular, highly transcribed genes, RNA polymerases and transcription factors gather into…
Recent high resolution structures for viral capsids with 12, 32 and 72 subunits ($T1$, $T3$ and $T7$ viruses) have confirmed theoretical predictions of an icosadeltahedral structure with 12 subunits having five nearest neighbors (pentamers)…
Nanoparticle self-assembly is an efficient bottom-up strategy for the creation of nanostructures. In the standard approach, ligands are grafted on the surfaces of nanoparticles to keep them separated and control interparticle interactions.…
A liquid crystal continuum modeling framework for icosahedra bacteriophage viruses is developed and tested. The main assumptions of the model are the chromonic columnar hexagonal structure of confined DNA, the high resistance to bending and…
We report many different nano-structures which are formed when model nano-particles of different sizes (diameter {\sigma} n ) are allowed to aggregate in a background matrix of semi-flexible self assembled polymeric worm like micellar…