Dynamics of icosahedral viruses: what does Viral Tiling Theory teach us?

TL;DR

This paper uses a simplified point-mass model to analyze the vibrational dynamics of icosahedral virus capsids, revealing generic spectral features and emphasizing the role of Viral Tiling Theory and symmetry considerations.

Contribution

It introduces a top-down, coarse-grained approach to virus capsid dynamics and highlights the significance of Viral Tiling Theory in understanding vibrational spectra.

Findings

Identification of generic vibrational spectral features

Insights into the role of approximate inversion symmetry

Application of Viral Tiling Theory to virus vibrations

Abstract

We present a top-down approach to the study of the dynamics of icosahedral virus capsids, in which each protein is approximated by a point mass. Although this represents a rather crude coarse-graining, we argue that it highlights several generic features of vibrational spectra which have been overlooked so far. We furthermore discuss the consequences of approximate inversion symmetry as well as the role played by Viral Tiling Theory in the study of virus capsid vibrations.