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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Sep 30.
Published in final edited form as: Adv Virus Res. 2012;83:219–298. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-394438-2.00006-2

FIGURE 4.

FIGURE 4

Assembly of the phage λ head. Head assembly has been subdivided into five steps, although most steps are not very well understood in mechanistic terms. Note that the tail is assembled independently. GpC protease, scaffolding protein gpNu3, and portal protein gpB form an ill-defined initiator structure. Protein gpE joins this complex in a step requiring the chaperonins GroES and GroEL. Proteins gpNu1, gpA, and gpFI are required for DNA packaging. GpD joins and stabilizes the capsid as a structural protein; gpFII and gpW are connecting the head to the tail that joins once the head is completed. Modified after Georgopoulos et al. (1983) and Lander et al. (2008).