Llorente J M Gomez, Hernández-Rojas J, Bretón J
Departamento de Física Fundamental II and IUdEA, Universidad de La Laguna, 38205 Tenerife, Spain.
Soft Matter. 2014 May 28;10(20):3560-9. doi: 10.1039/c4sm00087k. Epub 2014 Mar 21.
Viruses are biological nanosystems with a capsid of protein-made capsomer units that encloses and protects the genetic material responsible for their replication. Here we show how the geometrical constraints of the capsomer-capsomer interaction in icosahedral capsids and the requirement of low frustration fix the form of the shortest and universal truncated multipolar expansion of the two-body interaction between capsomers. The structures of many of the icosahedral and related virus capsids are located as single lowest energy states of a potential energy surface built from this interaction. Our minimalist representation is consistent with other models known to produce a controllable and efficient self-assembly, and unveils relevant features of the natural design of the capsids. It promises to be very useful in physical virology and may also be of interest in fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology where similar hollow convex structures are relevant.
病毒是一种生物纳米系统，其衣壳由蛋白质构成的衣壳粒单元组成，这些衣壳粒包围并保护着负责病毒复制的遗传物质。在此，我们展示了二十面体衣壳中衣壳粒与衣壳粒相互作用的几何约束以及低受挫要求如何确定衣壳粒间两体相互作用最短且通用的截断多极展开形式。许多二十面体及相关病毒衣壳的结构都处于由这种相互作用构建的势能面的单一最低能量状态。我们的极简表示与已知能产生可控且高效自组装的其他模型一致，并揭示了衣壳自然设计的相关特征。它有望在物理病毒学中非常有用，在纳米科学和纳米技术领域中，当类似的中空凸结构相关时，可能也会引起人们的兴趣。
