Allosteric control in icosahedral capsid assembly

TL;DR

This study uses computational and theoretical models to demonstrate that allosteric regulation enhances the robustness and thermostability of icosahedral capsid assembly across various conditions.

Contribution

It reveals how allosteric control broadens the parameter space for successful virus capsid assembly, a novel insight into viral self-assembly mechanisms.

Findings

Allosteric control increases assembly robustness.

Assembly becomes thermostable with sufficient allostery.

Allostery shifts the effective range of binding affinities.

Abstract

During the lifecycle of a virus, viral proteins and other components self-assemble to form a symmetric protein shell called a capsid. This assembly process is subject to multiple competing constraints, including the need to form a thermostable shell while avoiding kinetic traps. It has been proposed that viral assembly satisfies these constraints through allosteric regulation, including the interconversion of capsid proteins among conformations with different propensities for assembly. In this article we use computational and theoretical modeling to explore how such allostery affects the assembly of icosahedral shells. We simulate assembly under a wide range of protein concentrations, protein binding affinities, and two different mechanisms of allosteric control. We find that, above a threshold strength of allosteric control, assembly becomes robust over a broad range of subunit binding affinities and concentrations, allowing the formation of highly thermostable capsids. Our results suggest that allostery can significantly shift the range of protein binding affinities that lead to successful assembly, and thus should be accounted for in models that are used to estimate interaction parameters from experimental data.