Minimalistic coarse-grained modeling of viral capsid assembly

摘要: Abstract The spontaneous formation of virus capsids from multiple copies capsid proteins is a fascinating example supramolecular self-assembling processes. Most known viruses protect their genome with icosahedral capsids, but other morphologies exist as well, including elongated, conical, tubular, head-tail structures. mechanisms assembly can be diverse and are still not perfectly understood. In this chapter we present theoretical models developed over the years that reproduce basic physics self-assembly empty viral capsids. All these highly coarse-grained, it possible to access long timescales such processes atomistic modeling. Very different particle-based result in same overall behavior, showing governed by effective anisotropic interactions between protein building blocks.