Virus Structure: From Crick and Watson to a New Conjecture

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new conjecture linking electron pattern scars on spheres, observed in physical and numerical models, to the formation and shape diversity of virus capsids, extending classical structural theories.

Contribution

It introduces a novel conjecture that scars from Coulomb minimization and self-assembled beads influence virus capsid assembly and shape, suggesting a new perspective on virus structure formation.

Findings

Scars are predicted to form during virus capsid assembly.

Energy transfer from bending to stretching may lead to non-spherical shapes.

The conjecture can be experimentally tested with artificial protein-cages.

Abstract

We conjecture that certain patterns (scars), theoretically and numerically predicted to be formed by electrons arranged on a sphere to minimize the repulsive Coulomb potential (the Thomson problem) and experimentally found in spherical crystals formed by self-assembled polystyrene beads (an instance of the generalized Thomson problem), could be relevant to extend the classic Caspar and Klug construction for icosahedrally-shaped virus capsids. The main idea is that scars could be produced at an intermediate stage of the assembly of the virus capsids and the release of the bending energy present in scars into stretching energy could allow for a variety of non-spherical capsids' shapes. The conjecture can be tested in experiments on the assembly of artificial protein-cages where these scars should appear.