title: Energies and pressures in viruses: contribution of nonspecific electrostatic interactions.
abstract: We summarize some aspects of electrostatic interactions in the context of viruses. A simplified but, within well defined limitations, reliable approach is used to derive expressions for electrostatic energies and the corresponding osmotic pressures in single-stranded RNA viruses and double-stranded DNA bacteriophages. The two types of viruses differ crucially in the spatial distribution of their genome charge which leads to essential differences in their free energies, depending on the capsid size and total charge in a quite different fashion. Differences in the free energies are trailed by the corresponding characteristics and variations in the osmotic pressure between the inside of the virus and the external bathing solution.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics, Zagreb, Croatia. asiber@ifs.hr
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Siber
authors.forename: Anže Lošdorfer
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Božič
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Podgornik
mesh_terms: D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000737:chemistry*; D002213:Capsid / Q000737:chemistry; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry; D008958:Models, Molecular; D009997:Osmotic Pressure; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000737:chemistry*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry; D055672:Static Electricity; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D012367:RNA, Viral