Contact Mechanics of a Small Icosahedral Virus

Cheng Zeng, Mercedes Hernando-Pérez, Bogdan Dragnea, Xiang Ma, Paul van der Schoot, and Roya Zandi
Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 038102 – Published 20 July 2017
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Abstract

A virus binding to a surface causes stress of the virus cage near the contact area. Here, we investigate the potential role of substrate-induced structural perturbation in the mechanical response of virus particles to adsorption. This is particularly relevant to the broad category of viruses stabilized by weak noncovalent interactions. We utilize atomic force microscopy to measure height distributions of the brome mosaic virus upon adsorption from solution on atomically flat substrates and present a continuum model that captures our observations and provides estimates of elastic properties and of the interfacial energy of the virus, without recourse to indentation.

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  • Received 26 January 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.038102

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Physics of Living SystemsPolymers & Soft Matter

Authors & Affiliations

Cheng Zeng, Mercedes Hernando-Pérez, and Bogdan Dragnea*

  • Department of Chemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA

Xiang Ma

  • Department of Chemistry, Idaho State University, Pocatello, Idaho 83209, USA

Paul van der Schoot

  • Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, 5600 MB Eindhoven, Netherlands

Roya Zandi

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California at Riverside, 900 University Avenue, Riverside, California 92521, USA

  • *dragnea@indiana.edu
  • Present and permanent address: Institute for Theoretical Physics, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC Utrecht, Netherlands.

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Issue

Vol. 119, Iss. 3 — 21 July 2017

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