Jm. Mullaney et Lw. Black, CAPSID TARGETING SEQUENCE TARGETS FOREIGN PROTEINS INTO BACTERIOPHAGE-T4 AND PERMITS PROTEOLYTIC PROCESSING, Journal of Molecular Biology, 261(3), 1996, pp. 372-385
A membrane-independent morphogenetic viral signal peptide is identifie
d within bacteriophage T4 internal protein III (IPIII). Utilizing a ph
age-derived expression-packaging-processing system, which packages for
eign proteins fused with IPIII into the phage capsid, a synthetic clea
vage site introduced at the C terminus of IPIII is demonstrated to be
functional and permits processing of fusion proteins. IPIII, which pos
sesses a native P21 cleavage site at its N terminus, is altered to pos
sess a second P21 cleavage site at its C terminus where cleavage occur
s by means of the scaffold proteinase P21 within the capsid. The alter
ed IPIII was inserted into an expression vector to permit the creation
of fusion proteins with staphylococcal nuclease, EcoRI endonuclease,
beta-globin, and luciferase. Western immunoblot analysis of packaged T
4eG326 indicates that the IPIII:fusion-proteins are packaged into phag
e and proteolytically processed, thus the synthetic P21 cleavage site
positioned at the C terminus of IPIII is demonstrated to be functional
, and 20 to 200 protein molecules are packaged per capsid. Truncation
experiments identified the minimal portion of IPIII required to achiev
e targeting into the phage capsid as a ten amino acid residue from the
N terminus, which includes the N-terminal methionine residue and the
proteinase P21 cleavage site, designated the CTS (capsid targeting seq
uence). The addition of the CTS to a fragment of luciferase permits th
e protein to be packaged and processed, which demonstrates that the CT
S is by itself sufficient to target foreign protein to the capsid. The
imputed dual function of the CTS is supported by site-directed-PCR mu
tagenesis, which reveals two functionally separate domains of the CTS
for targeting and processing. The CTS appears to function in a core-re
lated targeting mechanism that directs a polymorphic set of proteins i
nto the T-even capsid or scaffold. Although structure formation is oft
en assumed to involve extended protein interfaces, the analysis shows
that a limited but specific sequence, the CTS, drives the interaction
required to achieve targeting. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited.