DNA ejection speed

Range ≤60,000 bp/sec
Organism Bacteriophage Lambda
Reference Liu T et al., Solid-to-fluid-like DNA transition in viruses facilitates infection. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Oct 14 111(41):14675-80. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1321637111. p.14675 right column top paragraphPubMed ID25271319
Primary Source Grayson P, Han L, Winther T, Phillips R (2007) Real-time observations of single bacteriophage lambda DNA ejections in vitro. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104(37):14652–14657 .PubMed ID17804798
Comments p.14675 right column top paragraph:"It has been proposed that so-called Coulomb sliding friction between neighboring DNA helices plays a significant role in DNA mobility at high packing densities in the viral capsids (refs 19, 20). Indeed, recently it was shown that interhelical sliding friction leads to a kinetically trapped, glassy DNA state inside the capsid. This high-friction genome state was found to significantly affect the rates of DNA packaging in vitro (ref 21). This occurs from dragging closely packed, negatively charged DNA helices past other helices. Despite decades of investigations of the encapsidated genome structure and its energetics (refs 3, 22), it is not known what provides the required mobility to the hexagonally ordered viral DNA during the initiation of its ultrafast ejection, reaching 60,000 bp/s (primary source). In this work, [investigators] provide an answer to this fundamentally important question."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111741