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Updated: May 28, 2026

Synthesis of Infectious Bacteriophages in an E. coli-based Cell-free Expression System
Published on: August 17, 2017
Bacteriophage assembly
Anastasia A Aksyuk1, Michael G Rossmann1
1Department of Biological Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA.
Abstract:
Bacteriophages have been a model system to study assembly processes for over half a century. Formation of infectious phage particles involves specific protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions, as well as large conformational changes of assembly precursors. The sequence and molecular mechanisms of phage assembly have been elucidated by a variety of methods. Differences and similarities of assembly processes in several different groups of bacteriophages are discussed in this review. The general principles of phage assembly are applicable to many macromolecular complexes.
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