Applying molecular crowding models to simulations of virus capsid assembly in vitro.

ABSTRACT: Virus capsid assembly has been widely studied as a biophysical system, both for its biological and medical significance and as an important model for complex self-assembly processes. No current technology can monitor assembly in detail and what information we have on assembly kinetics comes exclusively from in vitro studies. There are many differences between the intracellular environment and that of an in vitro assembly assay, however, that might be expected to alter assembly pathways. Here, we explore one specific feature characteristic of the intracellular environment and known to have large effects on macromolecular assembly processes: molecular crowding. We combine prior particle simulation methods for estimating crowding effects with coarse-grained stochastic models of capsid assembl

SUBMITTER: Smith GR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3907212 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature