The precursor of VP2 plays an important role in capsid assembly. First, pre-VP2 and VP2 oligomers assemble to form a procapsid. Then, the pre-VP2 intermediates may be processed into VP2 proteins by proteolytic cleavage mediated by VP4 to obtain the mature virion. The final capsid is composed of pentamers and hexamers but VP2 has a natural tendency to assemble into all-pentameric structures. Therefore pre-VP2 may be required to allow formation of the hexameric structures 