Article on effects of isotropic and anisotropic interaction on assembly processes
Assembly processes, where several subunits join together, are important in many areas of chemical physics. For example, during viral replication proteins join together to form the capsid, the outer shell of the virus. Such self-assembly processes are also important for colloidal “patchy particle” systems.
In this study, we wanted to see what happened when, in addition to the target binding site, there was also a decoy site that bound, but not as well. These were our specific (anisotropic) interactions. In addition, we studied this system with and without an additional isotropic (non-specific) interaction. We found trade-offs as the isotropic attraction was increased. Interestingly, this leads to the suggestion that cooperative effects in multiparticle systems can cause a maximum in the association rates.
David W.H. Swenson
RESEARCH paper