A virus recognizes the starting point on the DNA to be packaged inside its protein shell
A bacteriophage – a virus that attacks bacteria – assembles into an infectious species using a powerful nanomachine to stuff its DNA into a protein shell. In several types of phage, this genome packaging motor is composed of several copies of large and small terminase subunits (TerL and TerS, respectively) that attach to a portal into the protein procapsid.
Figure 1. Envelope of NV1 TerS from SAXS data, overlaid with modeled structure with open HTHs. Circle highlights one HTH motif.
The Cingolani group (Thomas Jefferson U) has now determined the structure of TerS from the Pseudomonas phage PaP3. Phage DNA to be packaged contains multiple copies of the genome, but just one copy is needed to fill a procapsid. Terminases attempt to package this one copy by various methods; in PaP3 a termination signal is provided by the interaction of a specific sequence in the DNA (the cos sequence) with TerS.
A crystal structure of PaP3 TerS reveals a nonameric ring of mixed alpha/beta composition, sitting atop a 9-stranded beta-barrel. Projecting out from the ring are spokes tipped with helix-turn-helix (HTH) DNA-binding domains. In the crystal, with no DNA present, the HTH domains are packed tightly against the inner parts of the nonamer (a “closed” form). Crystals of TerS from the related NV1 phage were also studied; their quality was not as good but the same conformation was found. BioSAXS coupled to size-exclusion chromatography, at CHESS, was then used to examine the PaP3 TerS structure, and that of the related NV1 protein, in solution. Both turned out to be ~25% larger than predicted from the crystal structure. The molecular envelope determined from SAXS data for NV1 clearly showed protuberances on the outside of the nonameric ring that did not match the crystal structure. However, by rotating the HTH domain of each monomer about an obvious hinge region, an “open” model could be built that fit the SAXS envelope well (Figure 1).
Read more on the CHESS website
Image: Figure 1. Envelope of NV1 TerS from SAXS data, overlaid with modeled structure with open HTHs. Circle highlights one HTH motif.
