HK97 bacteriophage virus capsid dynamics
 Daniel Vlad, A.J. Rader, Yongmei Wang, and Ivet Bahar, in progress.

Structure
     The HK97 capsid is formed by the arrangement of 420 protein chains into 60 hexamers (green) and 12 pentamers (blue). The asymmetric units containing 7 protein chains  for the prohead (a) and head (b) forms are shown below.

Capsid Maturation
     During maturation, the capsid  undergoes a very large conformational change from quasi-spherical to icosahedral.

For more information see

  1.  W.R. Wikoff, L. Liljas, R.L. Duda, H. Tsuruta, R.W. Hendrix, J.E. Johnson. (2000), Science 289, 2129.
  2.  J. F. Conway, W. R. Wikoff, N. Cheng, R. L. Duda, R. W. Hendrix, J. E. Johnson, A. C. Steven. (2001), Science 292, 744.

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