Mechanical Deformation of Spherical Viruses with Icosahedral Symmetry

ABSTRACT

Virus capsids and crystalline surfactant vesicles are two examples of self-assembled shells in the nano- to micrometer size range. Virus capsids are particularly interesting since they have to sustain large internal pressures while encapsulating and protecting the viral DNA. We therefore study the mechanical properties of crystalline shells of icosahedral symmetry on a substrate under a uniaxial applied force by computer simulations. We predict the elastic response for small deformations, and the buckling transitions at large deformations. Both are found to depend strongly on the number of elementary building blocks N (the capsomers in the case of viral shells), the …