Structure of the Phage T4 Tail Fiber Angle

摘要

Our goal is to form a polygonal nanospring by self-assembly, from a designed strut-like chimeric protein. This protein is made from fragments of the T4 tail fiber and binds specifically to its angle protein. We have designed and expressed this chimeric protein which will inhibit the burst size of a T4 infected bacterium. This indicates that the chimeric protein can fold and oligomerize to create a site that binds tightly enough to the angle protein to sequester it and thereby greatly reduce the phage burst size.