Viral self-assembly as a thermodynamic process
软凝聚态物质
2009-11-07 v2 其他凝聚态物理
统计力学
其他定量生物学
摘要
The protein shells, or capsids, of all sphere-like viruses adopt icosahedral symmetry. In the present paper we propose a statistical thermodynamic model for viral self-assembly. We find that icosahedral symmetry is not expected for viral capsids constructed from structurally identical protein subunits and that this symmetry requires (at least) two internal "switching" configurations of the protein. Our results indicate that icosahedral symmetry is not a generic consequence of free energy minimization but requires optimization of internal structural parameters of the capsid proteins.
引用
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0211390,
title = {Viral self-assembly as a thermodynamic process},
author = {Robijn F. Bruinsma and William M. Gelbart and David Reguera and Joseph Rudnick and Roya Zandi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0211390},
year = {2009}
}
备注
pdf file, 13 pages, three figures