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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/141524
Coarse-Grained Simulations of the Assembly of Empty Viral Capsids
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The morphogenesis of a virus is one of the most important steps in its life cycle, since a well-formed structure is vital to survive in hostile environments and to infect hosts. Viral selfassembly resembles a nucleation process where individual proteins stochastically form aggregates driven by a favourable free-energy of binding. The kinetics of the process is strongly regulated by the existence of a free-energy barrier between the viral constituents in solution and the fully-formed virus, in analogy with a first-order phase transition. In this work a coarse-grained model of viral assembly units is implemented in a Brownian Dynamics simulation and used to characterize viral nucleation kinetics. From simulations we evaluate the steady-state rate of capsid formation and reconstruct the free-energy landscape of the process, from which the critical capsid size and the nucleation barrier are obtained. Finally, a brief comparison of the simulations results with the
predictions of classical nucleation theory (CNT) is discussed
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Treballs Finals de Grau de Física, Facultat de Física, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2019, Tutor: David Reguera López
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GARRIDO ZORNOZA, Miguel. Coarse-Grained Simulations of the Assembly of Empty Viral Capsids. [consulted: 8 of October of 2026]. Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/2445/141524