The role of non-specific interactions in a patchy model of protein crystallization

We use a coarse-grained model for generic proteins to investigate the formation of structures with P212121 symmetry, the most prevalent space group of protein crystals. To account for the string directionality of protein-protein interactions that has been suggested by previous studies, we represent proteins as spherical particles that are covered by a large number of small, attractive "patches" that are randomly distributed on the protein...