Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Virology logoLink to Journal of Virology
. 1987 Jan;61(1):113–118. doi: 10.1128/jvi.61.1.113-118.1987

Prohead core of bacteriophage T4 can act as an intermediate in the T4 head assembly pathway.

A Kuhn, B Keller, M Maeder, F Traub
PMCID: PMC255215  PMID: 3537341

Abstract

Bacteriophage T4 assembly was impaired in Escherichia coli hdB3-1 at an incubation temperature below 30 degrees C. Naked prohead cores (head scaffold) bound to the inner surface of the plasma membrane accumulated, and the major shell protein (gp23) precipitated into visible intracellular aggregates in the cytoplasm. Shifting the temperature to 42 degrees C allowed newly synthesized gp23 to assemble around the accumulated cores. We conclude that synchronous assembly of the scaffold and shell is not obligatory and that naked cores can serve as intermediates in the T4 assembly pathway.

Full text

PDF
115

Images in this article

114Image
on p.114
116Image
on p.116
117Image
on p.117

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Bijlenga R. K., Broek R vd, Kellenberger E. The transformation of rho-particles into T4 heads. I. Evidence for the conservative mode of this transformation. J Supramol Struct. 1974;2(1):45–59. doi: 10.1002/jss.400020106. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Casjens S., King J. Virus assembly. Annu Rev Biochem. 1975;44:555–611. doi: 10.1146/annurev.bi.44.070175.003011. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Doermann A. H., Eiserling F. A., Boehner L. Genetic control of capsid length in bacteriophage T4. I. Isolation and preliminary description of four new mutants. J Virol. 1973 Aug;12(2):374–385. doi: 10.1128/jvi.12.2.374-385.1973. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Eiserling F. A., Geiduschek E. P., Epstein R. H., Metter E. J. Capsid size and deoxyribonucleic acid length: the petite variant of bacteriophage T4. J Virol. 1970 Dec;6(6):865–876. doi: 10.1128/jvi.6.6.865-876.1970. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Hsiao C. L., Black L. W. Head morphogenesis of bacteriophage T4. I. Isolation and characterization of gene 40 mutants. Virology. 1978 Nov;91(1):1–14. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(78)90350-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Hsiao C. L., Black L. W. Head morphogenesis of bacteriophage T4. II. The role of gene 40 in initiating prehead assembly. Virology. 1978 Nov;91(1):15–25. doi: 10.1016/0042-6822(78)90351-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Keller B., Maeder M., Becker-Laburte C., Kellenberger E., Bickle T. A. Amber mutants in gene 67 of phage T4. Effects on formation and shape determination of the head. J Mol Biol. 1986 Jul 5;190(1):83–95. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(86)90077-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Keller B., Sengstag C., Kellenberger E., Bickle T. A. Gene 68, a new bacteriophage T4 gene which codes for the 17K prohead core protein is involved in head size determination. J Mol Biol. 1984 Nov 5;179(3):415–430. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(84)90073-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Laemmli U. K. Cleavage of structural proteins during the assembly of the head of bacteriophage T4. Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):680–685. doi: 10.1038/227680a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Müller-Salamin L., Onorato L., Showe M. K. Localization of minor protein components of the head of bacteriophage T4. J Virol. 1977 Oct;24(1):121–134. doi: 10.1128/jvi.24.1.121-134.1977. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Onorato L., Stirmer B., Showe M. K. Isolation and characterization of bacteriophage T4 mutant preheads. J Virol. 1978 Aug;27(2):409–426. doi: 10.1128/jvi.27.2.409-426.1978. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Showe M. K., Onorato L. Kinetic factors and form determination of the head of bacteriophage T4. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1978 Sep;75(9):4165–4169. doi: 10.1073/pnas.75.9.4165. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Simon L. D., McLaughlin T. J., Snover D., Ou J., Grisham C., Loeb M. E. coli membrane lipid alteration affecting T4 capsid morphogenesis. Nature. 1975 Jul 31;256(5516):379–383. doi: 10.1038/256379a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Steven A. C., Aebi U., Showe M. K. Folding and capsomere morphology of the P23 surface shell of bacteriophage T4 polyheads from mutants in five different head genes. J Mol Biol. 1976 Apr 15;102(3):373–400. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Traub F., Keller B., Kuhn A., Maeder M. Isolation of the prohead core of bacteriophage T4 after cross-linking and determination of protein composition. J Virol. 1984 Mar;49(3):902–908. doi: 10.1128/jvi.49.3.902-908.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Traub F., Maeder M. Formation of the prohead core of bacteriophage T4 in vivo. J Virol. 1984 Mar;49(3):892–901. doi: 10.1128/jvi.49.3.892-901.1984. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Völker T. A., Kuhn A., Showe M. K., Bickle T. A. Gene 67, a new, essential bacteriophage T4 head gene codes for a prehead core component, PIP. II. The construction in vitro of unconditionally lethal mutants and their maintenance. J Mol Biol. 1982 Nov 15;161(4):491–504. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(82)90403-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  18. van Driel R., Couture E. Assembly of bacteriophage T4 head-related strucutres. II. In vitro assembly of prehead-like structures. J Mol Biol. 1978 Aug 5;123(2):115–128. doi: 10.1016/0022-2836(78)90316-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Virology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES