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Originally published as Biophys J. BioFAST on November 19, 2004.
doi:10.1529/biophysj.104.047134
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Biophysical Journal 88:851-866 (2005)
© 2005 The Biophysical Society

Forces during Bacteriophage DNA Packaging and Ejection

Prashant K. Purohit *, Mandar M. Inamdar *, Paul D. Grayson {dagger}, Todd M. Squires {ddagger}, Jané Kondev § and Rob Phillips *

* Division of Engineering and Applied Science, {dagger} Department of Physics, {ddagger} Department of Physics and Applied and Computational Mathematics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California; and § Department of Physics, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

Correspondence: Address reprint requests to Rob Phillips, Tel.: 626-395-3374; E-mail: phillips{at}aero.caltech.edu.

The conjunction of insights from structural biology, solution biochemistry, genetics, and single-molecule biophysics has provided a renewed impetus for the construction of quantitative models of biological processes. One area that has been a beneficiary of these experimental techniques is the study of viruses. In this article we describe how the insights obtained from such experiments can be utilized to construct physical models of processes in the viral life cycle. We focus on dsDNA bacteriophages and show that the bending elasticity of DNA and its electrostatics in solution can be combined to determine the forces experienced during packaging and ejection of the viral genome. Furthermore, we quantitatively analyze the effect of fluid viscosity and capsid expansion on the forces experienced during packaging. Finally, we present a model for DNA ejection from bacteriophages based on the hypothesis that the energy stored in the tightly packed genome within the capsid leads to its forceful ejection. The predictions of our model can be tested through experiments in vitro where DNA ejection is inhibited by the application of external osmotic pressure.




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