The physics and mathematics of viral assembly
David Reguera
Departament de Física Fonamental, Universitat de Barcelona, C/ Martí i Franquès 1, 08028 Barcelona,
SPAIN
Viruses are fascinating biological entities, in the fuzzy frontier between life and inert matter.
Contrary to most biological organisms, viral particles are made of a minimal number of
components that in the simplest cases are just a one-protein-thick shell protecting a single chain of
RNA or DNA inside. Despite the lack of sophisticated biological machinery, viruses have found the
way to efficiently infect the host, assemble, and egress the cell following, in many cases, a
coordinated sequence of passive and spontaneous processes. This strongly suggests that, during
their life cycle, viruses must rely on general physical mechanisms to succeed in their different tasks
and to achieve the required resistance against possible extreme environmental conditions.
In this talk, I will summarize some of our recent efforts to understand the basic physical and
mathematical principles behind the virus life-cycle. In particular, I will discuss the remarkable
architecture, self-assembly and mechanical properties of viruses. The understanding of the
physical mechanisms that are common to all viruses could lead to the development of promising
broad-spectrum routes to attack viral infections. In addition, this knowledge will facilitate the
designing principles of viral nanocontainers as well as the control over encapsulation and release
of its cargo, which is crucial to use them in biotechnological applications.
References:
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Zandi, R.; Reguera, D.; Bruinsma, R. F.; Gelbart, W. M.; Rudnick, J. Origin of Icosahedral
Symmetry in Viruses. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2004, 101, 15556–15560.
Luque, A.; Zandi, R.; Reguera, D. Optimal Architectures of Elongated Viruses. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2010, 107, 5323–5328.
Luque, A.; Reguera, D. Theoretical Studies on Assembly, Physical Stability and
Dynamics of Viruses. In Structure and Physics of Viruses; Mateu, M. G., Ed.; Springer:
Dordrecht, 2013; Vol. 68.