Influence of microscopic interactions on the flexible mechanical properties of viral DNAs

During the packaging and ejection of viral DNA, the mechanical properties play an essential role in viral infection. Some of these mechanical properties are originated from different microscopic interactions of the encapsulated DNA in the capsid. Based on an updated mesoscopic model of the interaction potential by Parsegian et al., an alternative continuum-elastic model of the free energy of the confined DNA in the capsid is developed in this paper. With this model we not only quantitatively identify the respective contributions from hydration repulsion, electrostatic repulsion, entropy and elastic bending, but also predict the ionic effect of viral DNA's mechanical properties during the packaging and ejection.

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