A simple assembly path

An assembly path for formation of a dodecahedral capsid.

One subunit is added at a time to each growing intermediate. Of course, all these reactions are happening simultaneously in the virtual solution described by the equations.  To impose a nucleation step, the first three reactions are all slow, proceeding at the knuc rate.  Subsequent reactions proceed at a faster elongation rate, knuc*lambda. This path is a simplification: only one path is involved.  In a real reaction, there are certainly many degenerate paths.

A script for equations describing this path.

Kinetic simulations of this assembly reaction.

Zlotnick, A. (1994).  To Build a Virus Capsid:  An Equilibrium Model of the Self Assembly of Polyhedral Protein Complexes.   J. Mol. Biol. 241, 59-67.

Endres, D. and Zlotnick, A. (2002). Model-based Analysis of Assembly Kinetics for Virus Capsids or Other Spherical Polymers. Biophys. J. 83,1217-1230.

Zlotnick, A. and Stray, S. J. (2003). How does your virus grow? Understanding and interfering with virus assembly. Trends in Biotechnology 21, 536-42.