Classification and evolutionary trends of icosahedral viral capsids (Q1001534)

Summary: A classification of icosahedral viral capsids is proposed. We show how the self-organization of capsids during their formation implies a definite composition of their elementary building blocks. The exact number of hexamers with three different admissible symmetries is related to capsid sizes, labelled by their \(T\)-numbers. Simple rules determining these numbers for each value of \(T\) are deduced and certain consequences concerning the probabilities of mutations and evolution of viruses are discussed.