Abstract
Abstract The formation of a membrane-enveloped virus such as HIV-1 starts with the assembly of a curved layer of capsid proteins lining the interior of the plasma membrane (PM) of the host cell. This layer grows into a spherical shell enveloped by a lipid membrane that is connected to the PM via a curved neck (“budding”). For many enveloped viruses the scission of this neck is not spontaneous. Instead, the elaborate “ESCRT” cell machinery needs to be recruited to carry out that task. It is not clear why this is necessary since scission is spontaneous for much simpler systems, such as vesiculation driven by phase-separation inside lipid bilayers. Recently, Brownian dynamics simulations of enveloped virus budding reproduced protracted pausing and stalling after formation of the neck [1], which suggest that the origin of pausing/stalling is to be found in the physics of the budding process. Here, we show that the pausing/stalling observed in the simulations can be understood as a purely kinetic phenomenon associated with a “geometrical” energy barrier that must be overcome by capsid proteins diffusing along the membrane prior to incorporation into the viral capsid. This geometrical energy barrier is generated by the conflict between the positive Gauss curvature of the capsid and the large negative Gauss curvature of the neck region. The theory is compared with the Brownian simulations of the budding of enveloped viruses. Author summary Despite intense study, the life-cycle of the HIV-1 virus continues to pose mysteries. One of these concerns the assembly of the HIV-1 virus inside infected host cells: it is interrupted at the very last moment. During the subsequent pause, HIV-1 recruits a complex cell machinery, the so-called “ESCRT pathway”. The ESCRT proteins pinch-off the “viral bud” from the host cell. In this paper, we propose that the reason for the stalling emerges from the fundamental physics of the lipid membrane that surrounds the virus. The membrane mostly follows the spherical geometry of the virus, but in the pinch-off region the geometry is radically different: it resembles a neck. By combining numerical and analytical methods, we demonstrate that a neck geometry creates a barrier to protein entry, thus blocking proteins required to complete viral assembly. This “geometrical barrier” mechanism is general: such a barrier should form during assembly of all membrane-enveloped viruses – including the Ebola and Herpes viruses. Indeed many families of enveloped viruses also recruit the ESCRT machinery for pinch-off. A fundamental understanding of the budding process could enable a new strategy to combat enveloped viruses, based on selective stabilization of membrane neck geometries.