DNA Conformational Changes Play a Force-Generating Role during Bacteriophage Genome Packaging.

ABSTRACT: Motors that move DNA, or that move along DNA, play essential roles in DNA replication, transcription, recombination, and chromosome segregation. The mechanisms by which these DNA translocases operate remain largely unknown. Some double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses use an ATP-dependent motor to drive DNA into preformed capsids. These include several human pathogens as well as dsDNA bacteriophages-viruses that infect bacteria. We previously proposed that DNA is not a passive substrate of bacteriophage packaging motors but is instead an active component of the machinery. We carried out computational studies on dsDNA in the channels of viral portal proteins, and they reveal DNA conformational changes consistent with that hypothesis. dsDNA becomes longer ("stretched") in regions of high negativ

SUBMITTER: Sharp KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6554637 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature