Capsid

Abedon, Stephen T.

doi:10.5281/zenodo.20173633

🔬 Capsid

by Stephen T. Abedon Ph.D. (abedon.1@osu.edu)

About this entry: Capsid is one of a growing set of phage biology and phage therapy terms defined here. For more phage terms, see Abedon, S.T. (2025). Phage Therapy Annotated Glossary. Preprints.org. 10.20944/preprints202508.0347.v1

How can I improve this page? contact: terms@phage.org

Capsid: The protein shell that encloses the nucleic acid genome of phages along with genomes of viruses in general.

Discussion

<p>The more complex a virion, the more types of proteins that make up its capsid. Regardless of the number of types of capsid proteins, a.k.a., capsomeres, the capsid itself consists of multiply repeating multi-protein motifs.

The capsids of most phages takes on an icosahedral shape which is either symmetrical or elongated. The prominent exception are the filamentous phages which possess helically shaped capsids rather than icosahedral.

From the glossary of Hershey (1971), p. 773, "The proteinaceous 'shell' or 'coat' of a phage particle, normally filled with nucleic acid to form the 'head.'"

External links

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References

Hershey (ed.) (1971). The Bacteriophage Lambda. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

How to cite this page

Abedon, S.T. (2026). Phage Terms. https://terms.phage.org · 10.5281/zenodo.20173633

[1] Hershey (ed.) (1971). The Bacteriophage Lambda. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

🔬 Capsid

Discussion

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