Virology Lectures 2024 #4: Structure of viruses

Viral particles must not only protect the genome in its journey among hosts, but also come apart under the right conditions to release the genome into cells, a property called metastability. In this lecture we describe the two major forms of symmetry for building virus particles, helical and icosahedral. We discuss how to make small and large viruses, the triangulation number, quasiequivalence, and other components of virus particles such as spike glycoproteins and a lipid membrane.