The bacteriophage T4 DNA packaging apparatus targets the unexpanded prohead.

Abstract excerpt

During the morphogenesis of the bacteriophage T4 capsid, a conformational change of the major head shell protein, gene product (gp) 23, causes a 50% increase in capsid volume. This expansion is required to accept the full length chromosome and, therefore, must precede the completion of packaging....

Topics

• Bacteriophage T4
• Capsid
• Chymotrypsin
• DNA, Viral
• Hydrolysis
• Mutation
• Peptides