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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 5.

FIGURE 5

Assembly of the phage λ tail. The λ tail is made of at least six proteins (gpU, V, J, H, tfa, stf) with another seven required for assembly (gpI, M, L, K, G/T, Z). Assembly starts with protein gpJ, which then, in a poorly characterized fashion, requires proteins gpI, gpL, gpK, and gpG/T to add the tape measure protein H. GpM joins and then gpG and gpG/T leave the complex so that the main tail protein gpV can assemble on the gpJ/H scaffold. Finally, gpU is added to the head-proximal end of the tail. GpZ is required to connect the tail to the preassembled head. Protein gpH is cleaved by the action of gpU and gpZ (Tsui and Hendrix, 1983). It remains unclear if proteins gpM and gpL are part of the final particle (Hendrix and Casjens, 2006). From http://www.pitt.edu/~duda/lambdatail.html.