51

UniProt ID: P17173
Organism: Tequatrovirus T4
Review Status: COMPLETE
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Gene Description

Baseplate hub assembly chaperone gp51 of bacteriophage T4 required during the late phase of infection for the formation of the central hub of the tail baseplate. Synthesized in very low copy numbers in the infected host cell and absent from mature virions, gp51 acts transiently alongside group II hub components (gp5, gp26, gp27, gp28, and gp29) to promote assembly of a functional central baseplate plug onto which the six peripheral baseplate wedges circularize.

Existing Annotations Review

GO Term Evidence Action Reason
GO:0098003 viral tail assembly
IEA
GO_REF:0000043 		ACCEPT
Reason: gp51 is an essential group II baseplate hub assembly chaperone required for formation of the central hub of the bacteriophage T4 tail baseplate during late viral morphogenesis.
Supporting Evidence:
file:BPT4/51/51-uniprot.txt
FUNCTION: Chaperone that is involved in the formation of the central hub of the baseplate. {ECO:0000303|PubMed:21129200}.
file:BPT4/51/51-deep-research-falcon.md
Across authoritative sources, gp51 is consistently described as being required for formation of the baseplate hub (matsui1997isolationandcharacterization pages 1-2) and annotated explicitly as a “hub assembly chaperone”

Core Functions

Functions as a non-structural assembly chaperone during late morphogenesis to promote the formation of the central hub of the bacteriophage T4 tail baseplate.

Directly Involved In:
viral tail assembly
Supporting Evidence:
  • file:BPT4/51/51-uniprot.txt
    FUNCTION: Chaperone that is involved in the formation of the central hub of the baseplate. {ECO:0000303|PubMed:21129200}.
  • file:BPT4/51/51-deep-research-falcon.md
    Two independent authoritative sources state gp51 is required for assembly but absent from mature virions, placing its activity during intracellular morphogenesis in the infected bacterial cytoplasm

References

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Suggested Questions for Experts

Q: Which specific central hub protein (gp5, gp26, gp27, gp28, or gp29) is the direct substrate of gp51 during baseplate hub assembly?

Q: Does gp51 act solely as a conformational holdase/assembly factor, or does it catalyze a covalent or proteolytic maturation event (such as N-terminal processing of gp26) during hub assembly?

Suggested Experiments

Experiment: Perform yeast two-hybrid and in vitro co-immunoprecipitation screens testing purified recombinant gp51 against individual and co-expressed hub components (gp5, gp26, gp27, gp28, gp29) to identify its direct binding partner(s).

Experiment: Disrupt the translational-repressing RNA stem-loop at the gene 51 ribosome-binding site to overproduce gp51 during T4 infection and test whether excess gp51 sequesters hub subunits or alters baseplate assembly efficiency.

Deep Research

Falcon

(51-deep-research-falcon.md)

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📚 Additional Documentation

Notes

(51-notes.md)

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