Orientational phase transitions and the assembly of viral capsids
Abstract
We present a Landau theory for large-l orientational phase transitions and apply it to the assembly of icosahedral viral capsids. The theory predicts two distinct types of ordering transitions. Transitions dominated by the l =6 ,10 ,12 , and 18 icosahedral spherical harmonics resemble robust first-order phase transitions that are not significantly affected by chirality. The remaining transitions depend essentially on including mixed l states denoted as l =15 +16 corresponding to a mixture of l =15 and l =16 spherical harmonics. The l =15 +16 transition is either continuous or weakly first-order and it is strongly influenced by chirality, which suppresses spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking. The icosahedral state is in close competition with states that have tetrahedral, D5, and octahedral symmetries. We present a group-theoretic method to analyze the competition between the different symmetries. The theory is applied to a variety of viral shells.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review E
- Pub Date:
- June 2017
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevE.95.062402
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1701.04452
- Bibcode:
- 2017PhRvE..95f2402D
- Keywords:
-
- Physics - Biological Physics;
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter;
- Quantitative Biology - Subcellular Processes
- E-Print:
- Phys. Rev. E 95, 062402 (2017)