TY - JOUR
T1 - Polymer packaging and ejection in viral capsids
T2 - Shape matters
AU - Ali, I.
AU - Marenduzzo, D.
AU - Yeomans, J. M.
PY - 2006
Y1 - 2006
N2 - We use a mesoscale simulation approach to explore the impact of different capsid geometries on the packaging and ejection dynamics of polymers of different flexibility. We find that both packing and ejection times are faster for flexible polymers. For such polymers a sphere packs more quickly and ejects more slowly than an ellipsoid. For semiflexible polymers, however, the case relevant to DNA, a sphere both packs and ejects more easily. We interpret our results by considering both the thermodynamics and the relaxational dynamics of the polymers. The predictions could be tested with biomimetic experiments with synthetic polymers inside artificial vesicles. Our results suggest that phages may have evolved to be roughly spherical in shape to optimize the speed of genome ejection, which is the first stage in infection.
AB - We use a mesoscale simulation approach to explore the impact of different capsid geometries on the packaging and ejection dynamics of polymers of different flexibility. We find that both packing and ejection times are faster for flexible polymers. For such polymers a sphere packs more quickly and ejects more slowly than an ellipsoid. For semiflexible polymers, however, the case relevant to DNA, a sphere both packs and ejects more easily. We interpret our results by considering both the thermodynamics and the relaxational dynamics of the polymers. The predictions could be tested with biomimetic experiments with synthetic polymers inside artificial vesicles. Our results suggest that phages may have evolved to be roughly spherical in shape to optimize the speed of genome ejection, which is the first stage in infection.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33646920317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=33646920317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.208102
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.208102
M3 - Article
C2 - 16803211
AN - SCOPUS:33646920317
SN - 0031-9007
VL - 96
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
IS - 20
M1 - 208102
ER -