Bacteriophage HK97 head assembly.

The head assembly pathway of bacteriophage HK97 shares many features with head assembly pathways determined for other dsDNA phages, and it also provides examples of novel variations on the basic theme. We describe aspects of two specific steps in the assembly pathway, the covalent cross-linking among the assembled head protein subunits and the cleavage of those subunits that takes place earlier in the pathway. Comparisons of head assembly pathways among different phages, as well as comparisons of the organization of the genes that specify those pathways, suggest the range of different solutions phages have found to common assembly problems and give insight into the evolutionary histories of these assembly processes.