Modelling nucleic acid compaction inside viruses and self-assembly of viral capsids

• Applicant: Andrey Georgievich Cherstvy, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Biophysics
• Term: from 2012 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 210890642

• Final Report Year: 2015

Final Report Abstract

The current project has been focused on understanding of nucleic acid packing inside virus capsids and kinetics of virus self‐assembly. The major focus was on (i) implications of intermolecular interactions between the DNA under confinement, (ii) the adsorption and charge matching of flexible RNA chains during virus self‐assembly, (iii) the effects of macromolecular crowding in the cell cytoplasm on the reaction kinetics and diffusion of various molecular components. A significant progress was achieved in each of these key directions, as recognized by the publication record in solid scientific journals and the overall PI’s output.

Publications

• “Electrostatic interactions in biological DNA‐related systems“, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 13 9942 (2011)
  A. G. Cherstvy
  
• “Critical polyelectrolyte adsorption under confinement: planar slit, cylindrical pore, and spherical cavity”, Biopolymers, 97 311 (2012)
  A. G. Cherstvy
  
• “Anomalous diffusion and ergodicity breaking in heterogeneous diffusion processes”, New J. Phys., 15 083039 (2013)
  A. G. Cherstvy, A. V. Chechkin, and R. Metzler
  
• “Sensing viruses by mechanical tension of DNA in responsive hydrogels”, Phys Rev. X, 4 021002 (2014)
  J. Shin, A. G. Cherstvy, and R. Metzler
  
• “Strong and weak polyelectrolyte adsorption onto oppositely charged curved surfaces”, Adv. Polym. Sci., 255 1 (2014)
  R. G. Winkler and A. G. Cherstvy
  
• “Polymer Looping Is Controlled by Macromolecular Crowding, Spatial Confinement, and Chain Stiffness”, ACS Macro Lett., 4 202‐206 (2015)
  J. Shin, A. G. Cherstvy, and R. Metzler