title: Effects of RNA branching on the electrostatic stabilization of viruses.
abstract: Many single-stranded (ss) ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses self-assemble from capsid protein subunits and the nucleic acid to form an infectious virion. It is believed that the electrostatic interactions between the negatively charged RNA and the positively charged viral capsid proteins drive the encapsidation, although there is growing evidence that the sequence of the viral RNA also plays a role in packaging. In particular, the sequence will determine the possible secondary structures that the ssRNA will take in solution. In this work, we use a mean-field theory to investigate how the secondary structure of the RNA combined with electrostatic interactions affects the efficiency of assembly and stability of the assembled virions. We show that the secondary structure of RNA may result in negative osmotic pressures while a linear polymer causes positive osmotic pressures for the same conditions. This may suggest that the branched structure makes the RNA more effectively packaged and the virion more stable.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.
authors.forename: Gonca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Erdemci-Tandogan
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.
authors.forename: Jef
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Group Theory of Polymers and Soft Matter, Eindhoven University of Technology, P. O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.|Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Leuvenlaan 4, 3584 CE Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van der Schoot
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA.|Department of Theoretical Physics, J. Stefan Institute, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.|Department of Physics, University of Ljubljana, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia.
authors.forename: Rudolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Podgornik
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, California 92521, USA.
authors.forename: Roya
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zandi
mesh_terms: D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D055724:Electrophysiological Phenomena; D015394:Molecular Structure; D012328:RNA Viruses / Q000737:chemistry / Q000502:physiology*; D012367:RNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry; D055672:Static Electricity; D019065:Virus Assembly
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D012367:RNA, Viral