The products of the bacteriophage T4 capsid assembly gene 31, the T4 major capsid protein gene 23, and the Escherichia coli heat-shock groE genes participate in an interdependent mechanism in capsid protein oligomerization early in prohead assembly. Gene 31 was cloned, sequenced and expressed, and its regulation during infection was characterized. Gene 31 is more stringently required at high than at low temperature, and this requirement is reduced by temperature adaptation of the bacteria prior to infection. However, T4 gene 31 expression does not appear to be temperature regulated, nor does gene 31 apparently display sequence homology with the E. coli groE and other heat-shock genes.