Packaging speed of genetic material into capsid

Range ≤2000 (average ~700bp/sec) bp/sec
Organism Bacteriophage T4
Reference Vafabakhsh R et al., Single-molecule packaging initiation in real time by a viral DNA packaging machine from bacteriophage T4. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2014 Oct 21 111(42):15096-101. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1407235111. maximum p.15096 right column top paragraph & p.15101 left column top paragraph: average p.15098 left column 2nd paragraphPubMed ID25288726
Primary Source Fuller DN, Raymer DM, Kottadiel VI, Rao VB, Smith DE (2007) Single phage T4 DNA packaging motors exhibit large force generation, high velocity, and dynamic variability. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 104(43):16868–16873 .PubMed ID17942694
Comments p.15096 right column top paragraph:"Bacteriophage T4 has been an important model for tailed bacteriophages as well as herpes viruses (refs 10, 11). The T4 packaging motor, a pentamer of gp17 (70 kDa) (large terminase protein) assembled on the gp20 portal dodecamer (ref 12) is the fastest (packaging rate up to ~2,000 bp/s) of the viral packaging motors studied (primary source). Gp17 possesses all of the basic enzymatic activities necessary for generating a DNA-full head: ATPase, nuclease, and translocase (refs 14, 15)." p.15098 left column 2nd paragraph:"Depending on the DNA and ATP concentrations, it took 10–100 s for the motor to package a new DNA molecule. Because the average DNA translocation rate for the T4 packaging machine is about 700 bp/s (primary source), the 45-bp DNA used in [investigators'] assay gets packaged in about 50 ms. Hence, the time delay [they] observed between successive packaging events is the “initiation time” required for the motor to capture a new DNA molecule and initiate translocation."
Entered by Uri M
ID 111743