Distance (ds) between DNA strands in full capsid

Range ~2.8 nm
Organism Bacteriophage
Reference Purohit PK et al., Forces during bacteriophage DNA packaging and ejection. Biophys J. 2005 Feb88(2):851-66. p.852 left column 2nd paragraphPubMed ID15556983
Primary Source Earnshaw, W. C., and S. C. Harrison. 1977. DNA arrangement in isometric phage heads. Nature. 268: 598–602.PubMed ID401433
Comments p.852 left column 2nd paragraph:"DNA is highly compressed inside bacteriophage capsids, and the resulting forces have important effects on the phage life cycle, as revealed in several experiments. One early experiment which shed light on the possible role of the forces associated with packaged DNA is that of Earnshaw and Harrison (primary source), who characterized the tight packaging of DNA in viral capsids by the distance ds between strands (~2.8 nm in full capsids), and by Feiss et al. (1977), who identified limits on the amount of DNA that can be packaged into a ?-capsid."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111589