Prohead

A prohead or procapsid is an immature viral capsid structure formed in the early stages of self-assembly of some bacteriophages, including the Caudovirales or tailed bacteriophages.[1] Production and assembly of stable proheads is an essential precursor to bacteriophage genome packaging; this packaging activity can be replicated in vitro.[2] The prohead structure may take a different shape from the head of a mature virion, as seen with the prohead of Bacillus subtilis phage φ29.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Catalano, C. E.; Cue, D.; Feiss, M. (1995). "Virus DNA packaging: the strategy used by phage λ". Molecular Microbiology 16 (6): 1075–1086. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2958.1995.tb02333.x.
  2. ↑ Murialdo, H.; Becker, A. (1977). "Assembly of Biologically Active Proheads of Bacteriophage Lambda in vitro". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 74 (3): 906–910. doi:10.1073/pnas.74.3.906.
  3. ↑ Ivanovska, I. L., et al. (2004). "Bacteriophage capsids: Tough nanoshells with complex elastic properties". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 101 (20): 7600–7605. doi:10.1073/pnas.0308198101. PMC 419652. PMID 15133147.