Structural constraints on the three-dimensional geometry of simple viruses: case studies of a new predictive tool.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the fundamental principles of virus architecture is one of the most important challenges in biology and medicine. Crick and Watson were the first to propose that viruses exhibit symmetry in the organization of their protein containers for reasons of genetic economy. Based on this, Caspar and Klug introduced quasi-equivalence theory to predict the relative locations of the coat proteins within these containers and classified virus structure in terms of T-numbers. Here it is shown that quasi-equivalence is part of a wider set of structural constraints on virus structure. These constraints can be formulated using an extension of the underlying symmetry group and this is demonstrated with a number of case studies. This new concept in virus biology provides for the first time pred

SUBMITTER: Keef T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3571114 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature