Molecular jenga: the percolation phase transition (collapse) in virus capsids

@article{Brunk2018MolecularJT,
  title={Molecular jenga: the percolation phase transition (collapse) in virus capsids},
  author={Nicholas E Brunk and Lye Siang Lee and James A. Glazier and William Butske and Adam Zlotnick},
  journal={Physical Biology},
  year={2018},
  volume={15}
}
Virus capsids are polymeric protein shells that protect the viral cargo. About half of known virus families have icosahedral capsids that self-assemble from tens to thousands of subunits. Capsid disassembly is critical to the lifecycles of many viruses yet is poorly understood. Here, we apply a graph and percolation theory to examine the effect of removing capsid subunits on capsid stability and fragmentation. Based on the structure of the icosahedral capsid of hepatitis B virus (HBV), we… 
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