Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
structural components have long inspired the development of biomimetics
for nanodevices. One of the current hot topics in viral research is to make
these machines as viable and effective as possible outside infectious viral par-
ticles. Viral structure components and assembly intermediates are exciting
building blocks in nanotechnological and bionanotechnological applications.
In general, viral structures are typically formed by multimers of gene prod-
ucts. In order to apply such viral structures in nanotechnology, knowledge of
the stoichiometry of biological components is essential. Approaches in tradi-
tional nanotechnology are often distinguished between “top down” and
“bottom up” approaches. In virology, functional nanostructures have been
studied by both “bottom up” and “top down” approaches for decades,
despite not using nanotechnological terminology to describe the process.
Both in “top down” and “bottom up” approaches, stoichiometric determi-
nation of the components of the nanostructure is critical.
Although the absolute concentration of the substrates and the inter-
mediate is difficult to be determined, relative parameters, such as dilution
factors, percentage, and probability, as well as shapes and slopes of titration
curves, can be utilized to facilitate a more accurate determination. A variety
of biological systems and molecular processes have been successfully ana-
lyzed by mathematical methods. This review will only focus on the mathe-
matical methods employed, utilized, or developed in the author's
laboratory.
Introduction
Stoichiometry Quantification to Facilitate the
Understanding on the Mechanism in Viral
Assembly and DNA Packaging
Viruses are composed of both proteins and nucleic acids, either DNA
or RNA, that serve as the genetic material. Their genome is enclosed
in the protein shell or capsid. After the synthesis of structural proteins
and the viral genome, these components must interact with one
another to form a complete virion, a process referred to as virus
assembly.
1-5
One striking feature in the assembly of many linear dou-
ble-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses—including adenovirus,
6-10
her-
pes virus,
11-13
pox virus,
14-16
and bacteriophages T1,
17
T3,
18
T4,
19
T5,
20
T7,
21,22
P1,
23
P2,
24
P4,
25
P22,
26-28
Mu,
29
phi21,
30
phi29,
31-35
SPO1,
36,37
SPP1,
38,39
lambda,
40-43
and their relatives
44
— is that the
