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Multi-target Parallel Processing Approach for Gene-to-structure Determination of the Influenza Polymerase PB2 Subunit
Published on: June 28, 2013
The structure of an infectious P22 virion shows the signal for headful DNA packaging
Gabriel C Lander1, Liang Tang, Sherwood R Casjens
1Department of Molecular Biology, The Scripps Research Institute, 10550 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA.
Abstract:
Bacteriophages, herpesviruses, and other large double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses contain molecular machines that pump DNA into preassembled procapsids, generating internal capsid pressures exceeding, by 10-fold, that of bottled champagne. A 17 angstrom resolution asymmetric reconstruction of the infectious P22 virion reveals that tightly spooled DNA about the portal dodecamer forces a conformation that is significantly different from that observed in isolated portals assembled from ectopically expressed protein. We propose that the tight dsDNA spooling activates the switch that signals the headful chromosome packing density to the particle exterior.
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