Frustrated Polyelectrolyte Bundles and T=0 Josephson-Junction Arrays

We establish a one-to-one mapping between a model for hexagonal polyelectrolyte bundles and a model for two-dimensional, frustrated Josephson-junction arrays. We find that the T=0 insulator-to-superconductor transition of the {\it quantum} system corresponds to a continuous liquid-to-solid transition of the condensed charge in the finite temperature {\it classical} system. We find that the role of the vector potential in the quantum system is played by elastic strain in the classical system. Exploiting this correspondence we show that the transition is accompanied by a spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry and that at the transition the polyelectrolyte bundle adopts a universal response to shear.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table minor changes to text, reference adde

Geometric Signatures of Switching Behavior in Mechanobiology

The proteins involved in cells' mechanobiological processes have evolved specialized and surprising responses to applied forces. Biochemical transformations that show catch-to-slip switching and force-induced pathway switching serve important functions in cell adhesion, mechano-sensing and signaling, and protein folding. We show that these switching behaviors are generated by singularities in the flow field that describes force-induced deformation of bound and transition states. These singularities allow for a complete characterization of switching mechanisms in 2-dimensional (2D) free energy landscapes, and provide a path toward elucidating novel forms of switching in higher dimensional models. Remarkably, the singularity that generates a catch-slip switch occurs in almost every 2D free energy landscape, implying that almost any bond admitting a 2D model will exhibit catch-slip behavior under appropriate force. We apply our analysis to models of P-selectin and antigen extraction to illustrate how these singularities provide an intuitive framework for explaining known behaviors and predicting new behaviors.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Viral self-assembly as a thermodynamic process

The protein shells, or capsids, of all sphere-like viruses adopt icosahedral symmetry. In the present paper we propose a statistical thermodynamic model for viral self-assembly. We find that icosahedral symmetry is not expected for viral capsids constructed from structurally identical protein subunits and that this symmetry requires (at least) two internal "switching" configurations of the protein. Our results indicate that icosahedral symmetry is not a generic consequence of free energy minimization but requires optimization of internal structural parameters of the capsid proteins.Comment: pdf file, 13 pages, three figure

Physics of viral dynamics

Viral capsids are often regarded as inert structural units, but in actuality they display fascinating dynamics during different stages of their life cycle. With the advent of single-particle approaches and high-resolution techniques, it is now possible to scrutinize viral dynamics during and after their assembly and during the subsequent development pathway into infectious viruses. In this Review, the focus is on the dynamical properties of viruses, the different physical virology techniques that are being used to study them, and the physical concepts that have been developed to describe viral dynamics

Elasticity Theory and Shape Transitions of Viral Shells

Recently, continuum elasticity theory has been applied to explain the shape transition of icosahedral viral capsids - single-protein-thick crystalline shells - from spherical to buckled/faceted as their radius increases through a critical value determined by the competition between stretching and bending energies of a closed 2D elastic network. In the present work we generalize this approach to capsids with non-icosahedral symmetries, e.g., spherocylindrical and conical shells. One key new physical ingredient is the role played by nonzero spontaneous curvature. Another is associated with the special way in which the energy of the twelve topologically-required five-fold sites depends on the background local curvature of the shell in which they are embedded. Systematic evaluation of these contributions leads to a shape phase diagram in which transitions are observed from icosahedral to spherocylindrical capsids as a function of the ratio of stretching to bending energies and of the spontaneous curvature of the 2D protein network. We find that the transition from icosahedral to spherocylindrical symmetry is continuous or weakly first-order near the onset of buckling, leading to extensive shape degeneracy. These results are discussed in the context of experimentally observed variations in the shapes of a variety of viral capsids.Comment: 53 pages, 17 figure

Chiral symmetry breaking in Langmuir monolayers and smectic films

Langmuir monolayers and freely suspended smectic films can exhibit a spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry. The order parameter that characterizes this symmetry breaking is coupled to variations in the direction of molecular tilt. As a result, chiral symmetry breaking leads to the spontaneous formation of complex equilibrium patterns with either 1D or 2D modifications in the direction of molecular tilt. A Landau theory for this pattern formation gives a general phase diagram, which includes a uniform nonchiral phase, a striped pattern, a square lattice, and a uniform chiral phase

Phase Diagram of Chiral Biopolymer Wigner Crystals

We study the statistical mechanics of counterion Wigner crystals associated with hexagonal bundles of chiral biopolymers. We show that, due to spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking induced by frustration, these Wigner crystals would be chiral even if the biopolymers themselves were not chiral. Using a duality transformation of the model onto a "spin-charge" Hamiltonian, we show that melting of the Wigner crystal is due to the unbinding of screw dislocations and that the melting temperature has a singular dependence on the intrinsic chirality of the biopolymers. Finally, we report that, if electrostatic interactions are strongly screened, the counterions can condense in the form of an intermediate achiral Wigner solid phase that melts by the unbinding of fractional topological charges.Comment: 43 pages, 13 figure