How influenza's spike motor works

• Verfasst von: Ziebert, Falko [VerfasserIn]
• Verfasst von: Kulić, Igor [VerfasserIn]
• Titel: How influenza's spike motor works
• Verf.angabe: Falko Ziebert and Igor M. Kulić
• E-Jahr: 2021
• Jahr: 28 May 2021
• Umfang: 6 S.
• Teil: volume:126
• Teil: year:2021
• Teil: number:21
• Teil: elocationid:218101
• Teil: pages:1-6
• Teil: extent:6
• Fussnoten: Gesehen am 05.08.2021
• Titel Quelle: Enthalten in: Physical review letters
• Ort Quelle: College Park, Md. : APS, 1958
• Jahr Quelle: 2021
• Band/Heft Quelle: 126(2021), 21, Artikel-ID 218101, Seite 1-6
• ISSN Quelle: 1079-7114
• DOI: doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.218101
• Datenträger: Online-Ressource
• Sprache: eng
• K10plus-PPN: 1765670071

Abstract

While often believed to be a passive agent that merely exploits its host’s metabolism, the influenza virus has recently been shown to actively move across glycan-coated surfaces. This form of enzymatically driven surface motility is currently not well understood and has been loosely linked to burnt-bridge Brownian ratchet mechanisms. Starting from known properties of influenza’s spike proteins, we develop a physical model that quantitatively describes the observed motility. It predicts a collectively emerging dynamics of spike proteins and surface-bound ligands that combined with the virus’ geometry give rise to a self-organized rolling propulsion. We show that in contrast to a Brownian ratchet, the rotary spike drive is not fluctuation driven but operates optimally as a macroscopic engine in the deterministic regime. The mechanism also applies to relatives of influenza and to man-made analogs like DNA monowheels and should give guidelines for their optimization.