Studying self-assembly of norovirus capsid by a combination of in silico methods

Understanding how macromolecular assembly occurs is a fundamental and challenging problem because spontaneous, precise assembly is at the center of most biological processes. It is an elaborate process that requires non-covalent stable interactions between partners to stabilize the desired architecture for a specific purpose. One of the advantages of virus models is that under adequate conditions capsid proteins can be efficiently assembled in vitro in the absence of any other component, providing simplified experimental models that can be rigorously characterized. The present study aims at describing the initial steps of molecular self-assembly of norovirus-like particles (NoVLPs, composed solely of the major norovirus capsid protein VP1), by combining in silico computational approaches to explore complementary physical properties. We show that this strategy allows not only recapitulating but also revising a former NoVLP assembly model. Our approach can be applied and extended to other problems in macromolecular assembly.