Dresden 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 14: Poster Session II

BP 14.21: Poster

Dienstag, 10. März 2026, 18:00–21:00, P2

Modelling genome condensation and membrane bending in SARS-CoV-2 — •Nils O. Winkler, Sarah M. Seibert, Falko Ziebert, and Ulrich S. Schwarz — Institut Theoretische Physik & BioQuant, Uni Heidelberg

While many enveloped RNA-viruses use a rigid protein capsid to package and protect their genome, SARS-CoV-2 uses a high density of the transmembrane protein M to structurally reinforce its membrane, which then bends around the viral genome condensed by the cytosolic protein N. Interestingly, the RNA-genome seems to be further subdivided into smaller subunits, leading to a nested egg structure. We theoretically study the energetics of this situation by miminizing appropriate energy functions for genome condensation, membrane bending, droplet wetting and wrapping. In particular, we investigate which of these energy contributions can explain the nested egg structure as observed experimentally.

Keywords: Membrane bending; biomolecular condensate; LLPS