M. Vanheel et al., INTRINSIC VERSUS IMPOSED CURVATURE IN CYCLICAL OLIGOMERS - THE PORTALPROTEIN OF BACTERIOPHAGE-SPP1, EMBO journal, 15(18), 1996, pp. 4785-4788
Large cyclical oligomers may be formed by (curvi-) linear polymerizati
on of monomers until the n(th) monomer locks in with the first member
of the chain. The subunits in incomplete structures exhibit a natural
curvature with respect to each other which can be perturbed when the o
ligomer closes cyclically. Using cryo-electron microscopy and multivar
iate statistical image processing we report herein a direct structural
observation of this effect. A sub-population (similar to 15%) of inco
mplete oligomers was found within a sample of SPP1 bacteriophage porta
l proteins embedded in vitreous ice. Whereas the curvature between adj
acent subunits of the closed circular 13-fold symmetric oligomer is 27
.7 degrees, in these incomplete oligomers the angle is only 25.8 degre
es, a value which almost allows for a 14-subunit cyclical arrangement.
A simple model for the association of large cyclical oligomers is sug
gested by our data.