A model of growth of icosahedral viral capsids is proposed. It takes into account the diversity of hexamers' compositions, leading to definite capsid size. We show that the observed yield of capsid production implies a very high level of self-organization
moreexclusivestickingrules,theT=12capsid.Finally,inordertogettheT=25adenoviruscapsid,onemustintroducenolessthanfourhexamertypes,outofwhichonlyonetypecanagglomeratewith
pentamers.
Figure9:TheT=12capsid’sbasictriangle
Thea nitymatrixforT=12capsidisasfollows:
a
p
1
b
d
f
nb
mc
000000100000000001000000000001010000000010c000001000e0000000na00001nc000md0
TableV:A nitymatrixfortheT=12capsidconstruction
12