'Let the phage do the work': using the phage P22 coat protein structures as a framework to understand its folding and assembly mutants.

ABSTRACT: The amino acid sequence of viral capsid proteins contains information about their folding, structure and self-assembly processes. While some viruses assemble from small preformed oligomers of coat proteins, other viruses such as phage P22 and herpesvirus assemble from monomeric proteins (Fuller and King, 1980; Newcomb et al., 1999). The subunit assembly process is strictly controlled through protein:protein interactions such that icosahedral structures are formed with specific symmetries, rather than aberrant structures. dsDNA viruses commonly assemble by first forming a precursor capsid that serves as a DNA packaging machine (Earnshaw, Hendrix, and King, 1980; Heymann et al., 2003). DNA packaging is accompanied by a conformational transition of the small precursor procapsid into a larger

SUBMITTER: Teschke CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2862144 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature