M13 Major Coat Protein Antibody (RL-ph2): sc-53005

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Morphogenesis of filamentous phage includes synthesis of the phage major coat protein in precursor form, its insertion into the host cell plasma membrane, its cleavage to the mature form of the protein, and its assembly there into virions (1). At each stage of infection, the major coat protein of coliphage M13 binds to the E. coli cytoplasmic membrane with its antigenic site exposed to the cell exterior, which is at the amino-terminus of the protein (2). Coat protein synthesized in vitro is initially made with a 23 amino acid amino-terminal "leader peptide", termed "procoat", that is also a biosynthetic precursor of coat protein in vivo (3). The filamentous bacteriophage major coat protein occurs as a membrane-spanning assembly intermediate prior to incorporation into the lipid-free virion (4). Assembly of coliphage M13 is known to occur as the viral DNA crosses the cytoplasmic membrane, shedding its virus-coded DNA unwinding protein and acquiring from the membrane approximately 2400 copies of the major coat protein (5).