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Viruses such as polio are so well documented that a search for "empirical formula polio" gives you something like

 C332,652  
 H492,388  
 N98,245  
 O131,196  
 P7,501  
 S2,340

We know that the virus consists of 70% protein, 22% phospholipid, 6.5% DNA, 1.5% carbohydrate (from the book Herpes Simplex and Pseudorabies Viruses by Kaplan)

Is there any information on the actual chemical composition of HSV1 and varieties?

Thanks!

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  • $\begingroup$ Welcome to Biology.SE. What do you mean with atomic arrangement? $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    Apr 7, 2015 at 2:28
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! I'm mostly curious about the chemical composition in elements like in the above. $\endgroup$
    – sova
    Apr 7, 2015 at 2:43
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks! Arrangement sounded like you were interested in the spatial relationships between (all the) atoms $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    Apr 7, 2015 at 2:45
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    $\begingroup$ You should modify your question as people are giving misplaced answers. $\endgroup$
    – AliceD ♦
    Apr 7, 2015 at 3:26
  • $\begingroup$ I doubt that such a formula exists for HSV 1, and for good reason: It actually is one of the most massive viruses known $\endgroup$
    – Raoul
    Jun 22, 2015 at 17:15

1 Answer 1

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The Herpes viruses have a unique four-layered structure: a core containing the large, double-stranded DNA genome is enclosed by an icosapentahedral capsid which is composed of capsomers. The capsid is surrounded by an amorphous protein coat called the tegument. It is encased in a glycoprotein-bearing lipid bilayer envelope 1.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpes_simplex_virus

You can watch an animation of infection and steps of replication here, and below the video, they say that

HSV is a nuclear replicating, icosahedral, enveloped DNA virus. The HSV envelope contains at least 8 glycoproteins. The matrix or tegument which contacts both the envelope and the capsid contains at least 15-20 proteins[2].

In this definition of the structure, they at least assigned some values to the makeup. Additionally, in wikipedia, the viral genome is listed which I would recommend you take a look at as well. It can be found here but here is the synopsis of the table 

UL1 through UL56
US1 through US12
RS1, ICP0, LRP1, LRP2
RL1, LAT

Additional resources:

  1. HSV Genome 2nd link
  2. The use of microarrays to analyze gene expression
  3. Structural properties of HSV promoters
  4. Animation of the Construction of a HSV-1 DNA Microarray for Global Analysis of Transcript Abundance
  5. Animation of the Time-dependant Changes in HSV-1 Transcript Abundance During Productive Infection
  6. Some Genetic Functions Encoded by Herpes Simplex Virus type 1
  7. Herpes Simplex Virus Oligonucleotide Probes used in the DNA-microarray
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