Tilable nature of virus capsids and the role of topological constraints in natural capsid design.

ABSTRACT: Virus capsids are highly specific assemblies that are formed from a large number of often chemically identical capsid subunits. In the present paper we ask to what extent these structures can be viewed as mathematically tilable objects using a single two-dimensional tile. We find that spherical viruses from a large number of families-eight out of the twelve studied-qualitatively possess properties that allow their representation as two-dimensional monohedral tilings of a bound surface, where each tile represents a subunit. This we did by characterizing the extent to which individual spherical capsids display subunit-subunit (1) holes, (2) overlaps, and (3) gross structural variability. All capsids with T numbers greater than 1 from the Protein Data Bank, with homogeneous protein compositio

SUBMITTER: Mannige RV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2756041 | biostudies-literature | 2008 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature