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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 14, 2026

Generation and Assembly of Virus-Specific Nucleocapsids of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Generation and Assembly of Virus-Specific Nucleocapsids of the Respiratory Syncytial Virus

Published on: July 27, 2021

Self consistent field theory of virus assembly.

Siyu Li¹, Henri Orland^2,3, Roya Zandi¹

¹Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, United States of America.

Journal of Physics. Condensed Matter : an Institute of Physics Journal

|February 21, 2018

Summary

The self-consistent field theory (SCFT) reveals when the ground state dominance approximation (GSDA) fails for viral shell assembly. GSDA is unreliable for uniformly distributed RNA, necessitating SCFT for accurate modeling.

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Published on: March 19, 2018

Area of Science:

Biophysics
Computational Biology
Polymer Physics

Background:

The ground state dominance approximation (GSDA) is widely used for viral shell assembly studies.
Understanding RNA-capsid interactions is crucial for viral structure and function.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate RNA adsorption onto viral shells using self-consistent field theory (SCFT).
To identify conditions where GSDA is insufficient and SCFT is required for accurate modeling of viral shell assembly.

Main Methods:

Employed self-consistent field theory (SCFT) to model RNA adsorption onto charged viral shells.
Analyzed the influence of genomic RNA length and polymer-shell interactions on assembly dynamics.

Main Results:

Identified two regimes where GSDA is valid: long genomic RNA relative to capsid radius, or very strong RNA-capsid interaction.
GSDA fails when RNA is uniformly distributed within the shell.
Stronger polymer-shell interactions increase the energy gap, improving GSDA accuracy.
Genome persistence length is zero under GSDA but inversely proportional to the energy gap with SCFT.

Conclusions:

SCFT provides a more reliable solution than GSDA for viral shell assembly under certain conditions.
The study clarifies the limitations of GSDA and highlights the importance of SCFT for accurate modeling of RNA-viral capsid interactions.