title: Nonicosahedral pathways for capsid expansion.
abstract: For a significant number of viruses a structural transition of the protein container that encapsulates the viral genome forms an important part of the life cycle and is a prerequisite for the particle becoming infectious. Despite many recent efforts the mechanism of this process is still not fully understood, and a complete characterization of the expansion pathways is still lacking. We present here a coarse-grained model that captures the essential features of the expansion process and allows us to investigate the conditions under which a viral capsid becomes unstable. Based on this model we demonstrate that the structural transitions in icosahedral viral capsids are likely to occur through a low-symmetry cascade of local expansion events spreading in a wavelike manner over the capsid surface.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cermelli
authors.forename: Giuliana
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Indelicato
authors.forename: Reidun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Twarock
mesh_terms: D005537:Aphthovirus; D002213:Capsid / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D008958:Models, Molecular; D013499:Surface Properties; D013816:Thermodynamics
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins