Structure of the 3.3MDa, in vitro assembled, hubless bacteriophage T4 baseplate.

ABSTRACT: The bacteriophage T4 baseplate is the control center of the virus, where the recognition of an Escherichiacoli host by the long tail fibers is translated into a signal to initiate infection. The short tail fibers unfold from the baseplate for firm attachment to the host, followed by shrinkage of the tail sheath that causes the tail tube to enter and cross the periplasmic space ending with injection of the genome into the host. During this process, the 6.5MDa baseplate changes its structure from a "dome" shape to a "star" shape. An in vitro assembled hubless baseplate has been crystallized. It consists of six copies of the recombinantly expressed trimeric gene product (gp) 10, monomeric gp7, dimeric gp8, dimeric gp6 and monomeric gp53. The diffraction pattern extends, at most, to 4.0Å resol

SUBMITTER: Yap ML 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4130566 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature