Difference between revisions of "Part:BBa K2609002"

Revision as of 19:09, 1 October 2018

T4 bacteriophage long tail fiber protein gp37 (Modification I)

Coding sequence of the long tail fiber protein from T4 bacteriophage. The sequence has been modified in-silico for better binding to phosphoethanolamine near the receptor binding end of the protein. This is the first such modification in our series of four modifications.

Usage and Biology

The T4 bacteriophage uses its long tail fiber to recognize and bind to its receptor OmpC on the surface of E. coli cells, its cognate host. The binding is mediated by non-covalent interactions that leads to the docking of the tip of the tail fiber (protein gp37) with OmpC in an extremely stable fashion.

The free movement of the rest of the phage body against the fixed tail leads to a confirmation change in the baseplate. This confirmation change pulls the entire phage to the cell surface followed by subsequent ejection of the phage DNA into the host. The final injection happens with the aid of a "tail tube" that embeds itself into the outer membrane of the host and is well conserved across multiple hosts because of similar membrane structures. The first interaction with the cell surface, i.e. the long tail fiber binding, is what determines the specificity of the phage to the host cell.

Sequence and Features