Chemically Induced Morphogenesis of P22 Virus-like Particles by the Surfactant Sodium Dodecyl Sulfate

In the infectious P22 bacteriophage, the packaging of DNA into the initially formed procapsid triggers a remarkable morphological transformation where the capsid expands from 58 to 62 nm. Along with the increase in size, this maturation also provides greater stability to the capsid and initiates the release of the scaffolding protein (SP). (2,4) In the P22 virus-like particle (VLP), this transformation can be mimicked in vitro by heating the procapsid particles to 65 °C or by treatment with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). (5,6) Heating the P22 particles at 65 °C for 20 min is well established to trigger the transformation of P22 to the expanded (EX) P22 VLP but does not always result in a fully expanded population. Incubation with SDS resulted in a >80% expanded population for all P22 variants used in this work. This study elucidates the importance of the stoichiometric ratio between P22 subunits and SDS, the charge of the headgroup, and length of the carbon chain for the transformation. We propose a mechanism by which the expansion takes place, where both the negatively charged sulfate group and hydrophobic tail interact with the coat protein (CP) monomers within the capsid shell in a process that is facilitated by an internal osmotic pressure generated by an encapsulated macromolecular cargo.