Electrostatics-driven inflation of elastic icosahedral shells as a model for swelling of viruses

We develop a clear theoretical description of radial swelling in virus-like particles which delineates the importance of electrostatic contributions to swelling in absence of any conformational changes. The model couples the elastic parameters of the capsid – represented as a continuous elastic shell – to the electrostatic pressure acting on it. We show that different modifications of the electrostatic interactions brought about by, for instance, changes in or solution ionic strength, are often sufficient to achieve the experimentally-observed swelling (about 10% of the capsid radius).

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