Packaging contests between viral RNA molecules and kinetic selectivity.

Inbal Mizrahi, Robijn Bruinsma, Joseph Rudnick

PLoS computational biology 2022 Apr

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The paper presents a statistical-mechanics model for the kinetic selection of viral RNA molecules by packaging signals during the nucleation stage of the assembly of small RNA viruses. The effects of the RNA secondary structure and folding geometry of the packaging signals on the assembly activation energy barrier are encoded by a pair of characteristics: the wrapping number and the maximum ladder distance. Kinetic selection is found to be optimal when assembly takes place under conditions of supersaturation and also when the concentration ratio of capsid protein and viral RNA concentrations equals the stoichiometric ratio of assembled viral particles. As a function of the height of the activation energy barrier, there is a form of order-disorder transition such that for sufficiently low activation energy barriers, kinetic selectivity is erased by entropic effects associated with the number of assembly pathways.

Citation

Inbal Mizrahi, Robijn Bruinsma, Joseph Rudnick. Packaging contests between viral RNA molecules and kinetic selectivity. PLoS computational biology. 2022 Apr;18(4):e1009913