IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v5y2014i1d10.1038_ncomms5173.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evidence for an electrostatic mechanism of force generation by the bacteriophage T4 DNA packaging motor

Author

Listed:
  • Amy D. Migliori

    (University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla
    University of California)

  • Nicholas Keller

    (University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla)

  • Tanfis I. Alam

    (The Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Avenue NE)

  • Marthandan Mahalingam

    (The Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Avenue NE)

  • Venigalla B. Rao

    (The Catholic University of America, 620 Michigan Avenue NE)

  • Gaurav Arya

    (University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla)

  • Douglas E. Smith

    (University of California, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla)

Abstract

How viral packaging motors generate enormous forces to translocate DNA into viral capsids remains unknown. Recent structural studies of the bacteriophage T4 packaging motor have led to a proposed mechanism wherein the gp17 motor protein translocates DNA by transitioning between extended and compact states, orchestrated by electrostatic interactions between complimentarily charged residues across the interface between the N- and C-terminal subdomains. Here we show that site-directed alterations in these residues cause force dependent impairments of motor function including lower translocation velocity, lower stall force and higher frequency of pauses and slips. We further show that the measured impairments correlate with computed changes in free-energy differences between the two states. These findings support the proposed structural mechanism and further suggest an energy landscape model of motor activity that couples the free-energy profile of motor conformational states with that of the ATP hydrolysis cycle.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy D. Migliori & Nicholas Keller & Tanfis I. Alam & Marthandan Mahalingam & Venigalla B. Rao & Gaurav Arya & Douglas E. Smith, 2014. "Evidence for an electrostatic mechanism of force generation by the bacteriophage T4 DNA packaging motor," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-9, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5173
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5173
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5173
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms5173?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5173. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.