Geometric considerations in virus capsid size specificity, auxiliary requirements, and buckling.

ABSTRACT: Spherical capsids are shells of protein subunits that protect the genomes of many viral strains. Although nature displays a range of spherical capsid sizes (reflected by the number of subunits in the formation), specific strains display stringent requirements for forming capsids of specific sizes, a requirement that appears crucial to infectivity. Despite its importance in pathogenicity, little is known regarding the determinants of capsid size. Still less is known about exactly which capsids can undergo maturation events such as buckling transitions--postcapsid-assembly events that are crucial to some virus strains. We show that the exclusive determinant of capsid size is hexamer shape, as defined by subunit-subunit dihedral angles. This conclusion arises from considering the dihedral ang

SUBMITTER: Mannige RV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2688982 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature