Scar-Driven Shape-Changes of Virus Capsids

TL;DR

This paper explores how scar patterns, predicted by the Thomson problem and observed in spherical crystals, could influence virus capsid shape changes through energy transformations, offering a new perspective on capsid morphology evolution.

Contribution

It introduces the idea that scar formations on virus capsids could drive shape changes, extending classical models with a new energy-based mechanism.

Findings

Scars are predicted and observed in spherical structures.

Energy release from scars could facilitate capsid shape transformations.

The hypothesis can be tested through experiments and simulations.

Abstract

We propose 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 {\it 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 on the capsid at an intermediate stage of its evolution and the release of the bending energy present in scars into stretching energy could allow for shape-changes. The conjecture can be tested in experiments and/or in numerical simulations.