Viral capsids: Mechanical characteristics, genome packaging and delivery mechanisms

Abstract.The main functions of viral capsids are to protect, transport and deliver their genome. The mechanical properties of capsids are supposed to be adapted to these tasks. Bacteriophage capsids also need to withstand the high pressures the DNA is exerting onto it as a result of the DNA packaging and its consequent confinement within the capsid. It is proposed that this pressure helps driving the genome into the host, but other mechanisms also seem to play an important role in ejection. DNA packaging and ejection strategies are obviously dependent on the mechanical properties of the capsid. This review focuses on the mechanical properties of viral capsids in general and the elucidation of the biophysical aspects of genome packaging mechanisms and genome delivery processes of double-stranded DNA bacteriophages in particular.

• Publication year

  2007

• Venue

  Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences

• Publication date

  2007-03-19

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Materials Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1007/s00018-007-6451-1PMID 17440680PMCID 2771126
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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