Structure of bacteriophage phi29 head fibers has a supercoiled triple repeating helix-turn-helix motif.

ABSTRACT: The tailed bacteriophage 29 capsid is decorated with 55 fibers attached to quasi-3-fold symmetry positions. Each fiber is a homotrimer of gene product 8.5 (gp8.5) and consists of two major structural parts, a pseudohexagonal base and a protruding fibrous portion that is about 110 Å in length. The crystal structure of the C-terminal fibrous portion (residues 112-280) has been determined to a resolution of 1.6 Å. The structure is about 150 Å long and shows three distinct structural domains designated as head, neck, and stem. The stem region is a unique three-stranded helix-turn-helix supercoil that has not previously been described. When fitted into a cryoelectron microscope reconstruction of the virus, the head structure corresponded to a disconnected density at the distal end of the fiber

SUBMITTER: Xiang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3064346 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature