Form, symmetry and packing of biomacromolecules. IV. Filled capsids of cowpea, tobacco, MS2 and pariacoto RNA viruses.

Four icosahedral RNA viruses are considered: the cowpea chlorotic mottle virus, the satellite tobacco mosaic virus, the pariacoto virus and the MS2 bacteriophage. The validity of the phenomenological rules derived in previous publications (crystallographic scaling, indexed forms enclosing axial-symmetric clusters, packing lattices of viral crystals) is confirmed and shown to apply equally well to the coat proteins as to the (ordered) RNA chains.