Elsevier

Virology

Volume 174, Issue 2, February 1990, Pages 472-478
Virology

Quantized viral DNA packaging revealed by rotating gel electrophoresis

https://doi.org/10.1016/0042-6822(90)90101-VGet rights and content

Abstract

Two classes of missense mutations in the bacteriophage T4 gene coding for the major head protein produce phage with different length heads. The pt (petite) mutations produce phage with normal, intermediate, and isometric heads, whereas ptg (petite and giant) mutations also produce greatly elongated (giant) heads. DNA from petite, normal, and giant particles was clearly resolved by discontinuous rotating gel electrophoresis, and several new species of headful length DNA were found. These results confirm the idea that the major stop points for head length regulation are at Q = 13, 17, and 21, and also show that minor stop points exist at Q = 16, 18 and 20. The existence of these well-defined classes of DNA that correlate with capsid structure suggest that a structural relationship between the scaffold protein and the capsid protein determines head length and thus DNA length.

References (36)

  • J.R. Paulson et al.

    Morphogenetic core of the bacteriophage T4 head. Structure of the core in polyheads

    J. Mol. Biol.

    (1977)
  • F. Sanger et al.

    Nucleotide sequence of bacteriophage λ DNA

    J. Mol. Biol.

    (1982)
  • M. Son et al.

    Concatemerization and packaging of bacteriophage T7 DNA in vitro: Determination of the concatemers' length and appearance kinetics by use of rotating gel electrophoresis

    Virology

    (1988)
  • M. Yanagida

    Molecular organization of the shell the T-Even bacteriophage head. II. arrangement of subunits in the head shells of giant phages

    J. Mol. Biol.

    (1977)
  • U. Aebi

    Analysis and Biological Significance of the Structural State of Ordered Macromolecular Assemblies when Visualized in the Electron Microscope

  • U. Aebi

    Data presented in Eiserling, F. A., Structure of the T4 viron

  • U. Aebi et al.

    The transformation of τ particles into T4 heads

    J. Supramol. Struct.

    (1974)
  • D.L.D. Caspar et al.

    Physical principles in the construction of regular viruses

  • Cited by (20)

    • Geometry of phage head construction

      1999, Journal of Molecular Biology
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text