How influenza's spike motor works
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-...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
28 May 2021
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| In: |
Physical review letters
Year: 2021, Volume: 126, Issue: 21, Pages: 1-6 |
| ISSN: | 1079-7114 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.218101 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.218101 Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.218101 
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| Author Notes: | Falko Ziebert and Igor M. Kulić |
| Summary: | 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. |
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| Item Description: | Gesehen am 05.08.2021 |
| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1079-7114 |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.218101 |