Menagerie of Viruses: Organizing Principles of Virus Assembly

Myriads of viruses keep on proliferating around us. How are the virus
genomes, which carry information for making the next generation of
viruses, organized inside viruses? Guided by experimental facts, and
using theory in combination with computer simulations, we show that
simple physical principles underlie virus assembly. Our result is in
contrast to the long-held view that specific interactions between the
chemical sequences of proteins and polynucleotides dictate the
assembled genome structure. Electrical charge balance between the
genomes and the proteins enclosing them dictates the genome assembly
and the kinetics follows the same nucleation and growth mechanism as
seen in first order phase transitions. Our predictions capture the
essential aspects of genome packing in diversely different viruses
evolved over billions of years, and provide new strategies for
packaging genes for medical applications while questioning the general
applicability of the central dogma.