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PubMed · 6096021

Length determination in bacteriophage lambda tails.

I Katsura·R W Hendrix
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Abstract

We have isolated viable mutants of bacteriophage lambda that have in-frame deletions in gene H, which codes for a minor tail protein. They produce correspondingly smaller but active gene H protein products and assemble shorter-tailed phage particles. The deficiency in tail length for each mutant corresponds to the calculated shortening of the gene H protein caused by the deletion. These results show that the H protein determines tail length and argue strongly for a scheme in which the H protein is a ruler or template that measures length during tail assembly.

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Bacteriophage lambdaBase SequenceCentrifugation, Density GradientChromosome DeletionDNA Restriction EnzymesElectrophoresis, Polyacrylamide GelGenesGenes, ViralMicroscopy, ElectronMolecular WeightMutationViral ProteinsViral Tail ProteinsJournal ArticleResearch Support, Non-U.S. Gov'tResearch Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

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I Katsura, R W Hendrix. 1984. Length determination in bacteriophage lambda tails.. https://doi.org/10.1016/0092-8674(84)90476-8

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