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Review
. 2013 Jun;5(2):79-84.
doi: 10.1007/s12551-013-0114-2. Epub 2013 Apr 24.

Protein interactions in the assembly of the tail of bacteriophage T4

Fumio Arisaka  1 , Shuji Kanamaru  2
Affiliations
Review

Protein interactions in the assembly of the tail of bacteriophage T4

Fumio Arisaka et al. Biophys Rev. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

Protein interactions in the assembly of the baseplate have been investigated. The baseplate of the phage T4 tail consists of a hub and six wedges which surround the former. Both reversible and irreversible interactions were found. Reversible association includes gp5 and gp27 (gp: gene product) which form a complex in a pH-dependent manner and gp18 polymerization, i.e. the tail sheath formation depends on the ionic strength. These reversible interactions were followed by irreversible or tight binding which pulls the whole association reaction to complete the assembly. The wedge assembly is strictly ordered which means that if one of the seven wedge proteins is missing, the assembly proceeds to that point and the remaining molecules stay non-associated. The strictly sequential assembly pathway is suggested to be materialized by successive conformational change upon binding, which can be shown by proteolytic probe.

Keywords: Analytical ultracentrifugation; Bacteriophage; Contractile tail; Protein assembly; Protein interaction; Reversible association.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Sedimentation equilibrium of gp27–gp5* complex at pH 6 and pH 8
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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