Tail fiber diameter
They bind in a reversible manner to host molecules, attaching transiently the virion to the host until tail tip interacts with LamB and injects viral DNA into the. Bacteriophage T4 tail fibers are rodlike structures with a contour length of about 1400 a, a diameter of about 45 A, and a total mass of about 600,000 daltons. At the far end of the tail are one or more receptor binding proteins (the tail fibers), also described as adhesins. Using electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) and single particle analysis, we determined the organization of the tail proximal extremity of siphophage T5 that possesses a long flexible tail and solved the structure of its tail terminator protein p142 (TrP 142).
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