Related papers: Dynamics of DNA Ejection From Bacteriophage
Bacteriophages, phages for short, are viruses of bacteria. The majority of phages contain a double-stranded DNA genome packaged in a capsid at a density of ~500 mg/ml. This high density requires substantial compression of the normal B form…
Bacteriophages infect cells by attaching to the outer membrane and injecting their DNA into the cell.The phage DNA is then transcribed by the cell's transcription machinery.A number of physical mechanisms by which DNA can be translocated…
The conjunction of insights from structural biology, solution biochemistry, genetics and single molecule biophysics has provided a renewed impetus for the construction of quantitative models of biological processes. One area that has been a…
A critical step in the bacteriophage life cycle is genome ejection into host bacteria. The ejection process for double-stranded DNA phages has been studied thoroughly \textit{in vitro}, where after triggering with the cellular receptor the…
We study the control parameters that govern the dynamics of in vitro DNA ejection in bacteriophage lambda. Past work has demonstrated that bacteriophage DNA is highly pressurized; this pressure has been hypothesized to help drive DNA…
The role of thermal pressure fluctuations in the ejection of tightly packaged DNA from protein capsid shells is discussed in a model calculation. At equilibrium before ejection we assume the DNA is folded many times into a bundle of…
We discuss how a balance can be established between the force acting to eject DNA from viral capsids and the force resisting its entry into a colloidal suspension which mimics the host cell cytoplasm. The ejection force arises from the…
Ever since Hershey and Chase used phages to establish DNA as the carrier of genetic information in 1952, the precise mechanisms of phage DNA translocation have been a mystery. While bulk measurements have set a time scale for in vivo DNA…
The role of thermal pressure fluctuation excited within tightly packaged DNA prior to ejection from protein capsid shells is discussed in a model calculation. At equilibrium before ejection we assume the DNA is folded many times into a…
Recent in vitro experiments have shown that DNA ejection from bacteriophage can be partially stopped by surrounding osmotic pressure when ejected DNA is digested by DNase I on the course of ejection. We argue in this work by combination of…
A variety of viruses tightly pack their genetic material into protein capsids that are barely large enough to enclose the genome. In particular, in bacteriophages, forces as high as 60 pN are encountered during packaging and ejection,…
Most bacteriophages are known to inject their double-stranded DNA into bacteria upon receptor binding in an essentially spontaneous way. This downhill thermodynamic process from the intact virion toward the empty viral capsid plus released…
Bacteriophages densely pack their long dsDNA genome inside a protein capsid. The conformation of the viral genome inside the capsid is consistent with a hexagonal liquid crystalline structure. Experiments have confirmed that the details of…
Single molecule experiments on bacteriophages show an exponential scaling for the dependence of mobility on the length of DNA within the capsid. It has been suggested that this could be due to the "capstan mechanism" -- the exponential…
Several controversial issues concerning the packing of linear DNA in bacteriophages and globules are discussed. Exact relations for the osmotic pressure, capsid pressure and loading force are derived in terms of the hole size inside phages…
We present in this work in vitro measurements of the force ejecting DNA from two distinct bacteriophages (T5 and lambda) using the smotic-suppression technique. Our data are analyzed by revisiting the current theories of DNA packaging in…
We characterize the equilibrium thermodynamics of a thick polymer confined in a spherical region of space. This is used to gain insight into the DNA packaging process. The experimental reference system for the present study is the recent…
Intracellular transport of DNA carriers is a fundamental step of gene delivery. We present here a theoretical approach to study generically a single virus or DNA particle trafficking in a cell cytoplasm. Cellular trafficking has been…
The problem of inhibiting viral DNA ejection from bacteriophages by multivalent counterions, specifically Mg$^{+2}$ counterions, is studied. Experimentally, it is known that MgSO$_4$ salt has a strong and non-monotonic effect on the amount…
The terminase motors of bacteriophages have been shown to be among the strongest active machines in the biomolecular world, being able to package several tens of kilobase pairs of viral genome into a capsid within minutes. Yet these motors…