pubmed-article:1092689 | pubmed:abstractText | The major coat protein of bacteriophage f1, which is localized in the host membrane during phage maturation, has a hydrophobic binding site capable of binding deoxycholate and a variety of detergents to form a soluble particle, and in that respect, resembles many membrane proteins. The soluble particle has properties that suggest it is formed by simple insertion of protein into a deoxycholate or detergent micelle, but molecular weight measurements show that the protein is present as a dimer, even in sodium dodecyl sulfate, indicating the existence of unusually strong forces for self-association. A by-product of the investigation has been to show that detergents can be very helpful in the fractionation of the constituent molecules of the virus: deoxycholate-solubilized virus is readily fractionated by gel chromatography into DNA, A protein, and B protein, with virtually no cross-contamination. | lld:pubmed |