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Orientation and Interactions of an Essential Tryptophan (Trp-38) in the Capsid Subunit of Pf3 Filamentous Virus

Division of Cell Biology and Biophysics, School of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110 USA

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to George J. Thomas, Tel.: 816-235-5247; Fax: 816-235-1503; E-mail: thomasgj{at}umkc.edu.

The filamentous bacteriophage Pf3 consists of a covalently closed DNA single strand of 5833 nucleotides sheathed by 2500 copies of a 44-residue capsid subunit. The capsid subunit contains a single tryptophan residue (Trp-38), which is located within the basic C-terminal sequence (–RWIKAQFF) and is essential for virion assembly in vivo. Polarized Raman microspectroscopy has been employed to determine the orientation of the Trp-38 side chain in the native virus structure. The polarized Raman measurements show that the plane of the indolyl ring is tilted by 17° from the virion axis and that the indolyl pseudo-twofold axis is inclined at 46° to the virion axis. Using the presently determined orientation of the indolyl ring and side-chain torsion angles, ¹ (N–C–C^ß–C) and ^2,1 (C–C^ß–C–C¹), we propose a detailed molecular model for the local structure of Trp-38 in the Pf3 virion. The present Pf3 model is consistent with previously reported Raman, ultraviolet-resonance Raman and fluorescence results suggesting an unusual environment for Trp-38 in the virion assembly, probably involving an intrasubunit cation- interaction between the guanidinium moiety of Arg-37 and the indolyl moiety of Trp-38. Such a C-terminal Trp-38/Arg-37 interaction may be important for the stabilization of a subunit conformation that is required for binding to the single-stranded DNA genome during virion assembly.