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The effect of genome length on ejection forces in bacteriophage lambda.

Grayson, Paul ; Evilevitch, Alex LU orcid ; Purohit, P. K. ; Gelbart, William M. ; Knobler, Charles M. and Phillips, Robert (2006) In Virology 348(2). p.430-436
Abstract
A variety of viruses tightly pack their genetic material into protein capsids that are barely large enough to enclose the genome. In particular, in bacteriophages, forces as high as 60 pN are encountered during packaging and ejection, produced by DNA bending elasticity and self-interactions. The high forces are believed to be important for the ejection process, though the extent of their involvement is not yet clear. As a result, there is a need for quantitative models and experiments that reveal the nature of the forces relevant to DNA ejection. Here, we report measurements of the ejection forces for two different mutants of bacteriophage λ, λb221cI26 and λcI60, which differ in genome length by 30%. As expected for a force-driven ejection... (More)
A variety of viruses tightly pack their genetic material into protein capsids that are barely large enough to enclose the genome. In particular, in bacteriophages, forces as high as 60 pN are encountered during packaging and ejection, produced by DNA bending elasticity and self-interactions. The high forces are believed to be important for the ejection process, though the extent of their involvement is not yet clear. As a result, there is a need for quantitative models and experiments that reveal the nature of the forces relevant to DNA ejection. Here, we report measurements of the ejection forces for two different mutants of bacteriophage λ, λb221cI26 and λcI60, which differ in genome length by 30%. As expected for a force-driven ejection mechanism, the osmotic pressure at which DNA release is completely inhibited varies with the genome length: we find inhibition pressures of 15 atm and 25 atm, for the short and long genomes, respectively, values that are in agreement with our theoretical calculations. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Bacteriophage, Lambda, LamB, Maltoporin, Genome delivery, DNA ejection, Pressure
in
Virology
volume
348
issue
2
pages
430 - 436
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:33646266943
  • pmid:16469346
ISSN
1096-0341
DOI
10.1016/j.virol.2006.01.003
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
bb895887-8cb4-4c17-9df3-548340ea6b35 (old id 947640)
date added to LUP
2016-04-04 11:24:25
date last changed
2022-01-29 21:47:14
@article{bb895887-8cb4-4c17-9df3-548340ea6b35,
  abstract     = {{A variety of viruses tightly pack their genetic material into protein capsids that are barely large enough to enclose the genome. In particular, in bacteriophages, forces as high as 60 pN are encountered during packaging and ejection, produced by DNA bending elasticity and self-interactions. The high forces are believed to be important for the ejection process, though the extent of their involvement is not yet clear. As a result, there is a need for quantitative models and experiments that reveal the nature of the forces relevant to DNA ejection. Here, we report measurements of the ejection forces for two different mutants of bacteriophage λ, λb221cI26 and λcI60, which differ in genome length by 30%. As expected for a force-driven ejection mechanism, the osmotic pressure at which DNA release is completely inhibited varies with the genome length: we find inhibition pressures of 15 atm and 25 atm, for the short and long genomes, respectively, values that are in agreement with our theoretical calculations.}},
  author       = {{Grayson, Paul and Evilevitch, Alex and Purohit, P. K. and Gelbart, William M. and Knobler, Charles M. and Phillips, Robert}},
  issn         = {{1096-0341}},
  keywords     = {{Bacteriophage; Lambda; LamB; Maltoporin; Genome delivery; DNA ejection; Pressure}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{430--436}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Virology}},
  title        = {{The effect of genome length on ejection forces in bacteriophage lambda.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.virol.2006.01.003}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.virol.2006.01.003}},
  volume       = {{348}},
  year         = {{2006}},
}