Ordered phases of filamentous viruses

This review will focus on the equilibrium and non-equilibrium phase behavior of colloidal suspensions of rod-like viruses. It will treat the simplest case where the rods are the sole colloidal component and also the more complex phase behavior that arises in mixtures of binary rods and mixtures of rods with spherical colloids, or with polymers. An enormous volume of literature is devoted to the theoretical treatment and computer simulation of the phase behavior of hard rod systems. Viruses, because of their monodispersity and well-characterized interparticle interactions, continue to be the best experimental system for exploring the issues raised by theory. These include elucidating the fundamental relationship between molecular properties, such as length and charge, and macroscopic properties, such as phase behavior. Furthermore, through genetic engineering of viruses, new colloids have been created that are interesting to materials science for their potential to form self-assembling functional materials, such as biosensors and transducers.