Viruses as supramolecular self-assemblies: modelling of capsid formation and genome packaging

Abstract

Viruses are considered the simplest form of live. A virus is basically composed of genomic material surrounded by a protecting capsid. Today, full molecular details of many viruses are known, and several subclasses can be discerned. In this review, we present recent advances made over the past few years obtained from theoretical considerations and model simulations to improve our understanding on two vital aspects of the physics of viruses: viz. viral capsid self-assembly and viral genome packaging. Many processes, such as the self-assembly pathway, genome packing, and ultimately the infection mechanism, differ between viruses containing double-stranded polynucleotides on one hand and single-stranded polynucleotides on the other hand. We believe that these differences to a large degree originate from the different genome flexibilities.