Entropic control of particle sizes during viral self-assembly

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical analysis demonstrating how configuration entropy influences viral particle size distribution and RNA uptake, offering a new entropic control mechanism supported by recent experimental evidence.

Contribution

It introduces a novel theoretical model highlighting the role of entropy in controlling viral assembly and size distribution, specifically applied to retroviruses like HIV-1.

Findings

Entropy influences viral particle size distribution.

A new entropic control mechanism for RNA uptake in viruses.

Experimental evidence supports the model's predictions.

Abstract

Morphologic diversity is observed across all families of viruses. Yet these supra-molecular assemblies are produced most of the time in a spontaneous way through complex molecular self-assembly scenarios. The modeling of these phenomena remains a challenging problem within the emerging field of Physical Virology. We present in this work a theoretical analysis aiming at highlighting the particular role of configuration entropy in the control of viral particle size distribution. Specializing this model to retroviruses like HIV-1, we predict a new mechanism of entropic control of both RNA uptake into the viral particle, and of the particle's size distribution. Evidence of this peculiar behavior has been recently reported experimentally.