Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2004 Nov 4;432(7013):68-74.
doi: 10.1038/nature03056.

Insights into assembly from structural analysis of bacteriophage PRD1

Nicola G A Abrescia  1 , Joseph J B Cockburn, Jonathan M Grimes, Geoffrey C Sutton, Jonathan M Diprose, Sarah J Butcher, Stephen D Fuller, Carmen San Martín, Roger M Burnett, David I Stuart, Dennis H Bamford, Jaana K H Bamford
Affiliations

Insights into assembly from structural analysis of bacteriophage PRD1

Nicola G A Abrescia et al. Nature. .

Abstract

The structure of the membrane-containing bacteriophage PRD1 has been determined by X-ray crystallography at about 4 A resolution. Here we describe the structure and location of proteins P3, P16, P30 and P31. Different structural proteins seem to have specialist roles in controlling virus assembly. The linearly extended P30 appears to nucleate the formation of the icosahedral facets (composed of trimers of the major capsid protein, P3) and acts as a molecular tape-measure, defining the size of the virus and cementing the facets together. Pentamers of P31 form the vertex base, interlocking with subunits of P3 and interacting with the membrane protein P16. The architectural similarities with adenovirus and one of the largest known virus particles PBCV-1 support the notion that the mechanism of assembly of PRD1 is scaleable and applies across the major viral lineage formed by these viruses.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

Associated data