Icosahedral Structures

around the surface of a sphere. The corners of the structure are what we refer to as vertices, and each icosahedron comprises 12. These structures display a 2-3-5 symmetry, where there is 2-fold symmetry that rotates through the middle of the edges, 3-fold symmetry that rotates through the middle of each face, and 5-fold symmetry that rotates through the middle of the corners. These triangles are built from identical subunits, which in this cause prevent gaps from occurring between subunits, thus stopping the viral particle from seeping out. Although icosahedrons are made up of many identical, repeated subunits rather than a smaller number of larger subunits, this is going in favor of the icosahedral structure. The simpler structure which is the helix lacks the ability to hold the viral genome in place. …show more content…
The icosahedral structure is essential to viruses because it provides a stable, protective covering to protect the genome from any chemical or physical agents from harming it. In addition, the icosahedral shape is made up of identical subunits, the virus will better utilize its genome to encode proteins for the capsid. Finally, the last reason that I believe icosahedral structures have been favored by evolution is simply because they allow delivery of the genome by specific binding to external receptors on the host cell, which transmit specific signals that tend to induce uncoating of the genome, which also induced fusion with host cell