{"doi":"10.1101/2021.03.08.434477","title":"A viral genome packaging ring-ATPase is a flexibly coordinated pentamer","abstract":"Multi-subunit ring-ATPases carry out a myriad of biological functions, including genome packaging in viruses. Though the basic structures and functions of these motors have been well-established, the mechanisms of ATPase firing and motor coordination are poorly understood. Here, by direct counting using single-molecule fluorescence, we have determined that the active bacteriophage T4 DNA packaging motor consists of five subunits of gp17. By systematically doping motors with an ATPase-defective subunit and selecting single motors containing a precise count of active/inactive subunit(s), we found, unexpectedly, that the packaging motor can tolerate an inactive sub-unit. However, motors containing an inactive subunit(s) exhibit fewer DNA engagements, a higher failure rate in encapsidation, reduced packaging velocity, and increased pausing. These findings suggest a new packaging model in which the motor, by re-adjusting its grip on DNA, can skip an inactive subunit and resume DNA translocation, contrary to the prevailing notion of strict coordination amongst motor subunits of other packaging motors.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2021,"id":220394,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9622,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":467230,"name":"Digvijay Singh","orcid":"0000-0002-7411-4436","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":746604,"name":"Suoang Lu","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":746043,"name":"Vishal I. Kottadiel","orcid":"0000-0002-7395-0176","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":22167,"name":"Reza Vafabakhsh","orcid":"0000-0001-8384-3203","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":123457,"name":"Marthandan Mahalingam","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":284454,"name":"Yann R. Chemla","orcid":"0000-0001-9167-0234","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":22168,"name":"Taekjip Ha","orcid":"0000-0003-2195-6258","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":123459,"name":"Venigalla B. Rao","orcid":"0000-0002-0777-6587","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":288887,"name":"Li Dai","orcid":"0000-0002-3548-9884","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":47,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:53:46.965811Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}