Bentley Fane, PhD
Professor
Contact Information:
Education:
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988 - PhD
- Brandeis University, 1983 - BS
Research:
The proper assembly of proteins and nucleic acids into biologically active virions involves numerous and diverse macromolecular interactions. While structural proteins, those found in the mature virion, must correctly interact, proper morphogenesis is equally dependent on scaffolding proteins. Analogous to scaffoldings used in building construction, these proteins ensure the integrity and efficiency of viral morphogenesis but they are not found in the final product. In addition to scaffolding proteins, the morphogenesis of single-stranded icosahedral viruses may be influenced by the association of the genome to the inner surface of the capsid. The broad objective of our research program is to elucidate the molecular mechanisms involved in scaffolding-mediated and genome-mediate morphogenesis within the Microviridae system. In addition, we are also beginning to examine the biology of viruses that infect obligate intracellular parasitic bacteria.
 Figure above: The coat-internal scaffolding protein asymmetric unit as it appears in the atomic structure of the viral procapsid. The viral coat protein is depicted in blue, the internal scaffolding protein in orange.
Publications:
- Cherwa JE Jr, Uchiyama A and Fane BA Scaffolding proteins altered in the ability to perform a conformational switch confer dominant lethal assembly defects. J Virol 82, 5774-80, 2008.
- Salim O, Skilton RJ, Lambden PR, Fane BA and Clarke IN. Behind the chlamydial cloak: the replication cycle of chlamydiaphage Chp2, revealed. Virology 377, 440-5, 2008.
- Uchiyama A, Chen M and Fane BA. Characterization and function of putative substrate specificity domain in microvirus external scaffolding proteins. J Virol 81, 8587-92, 2007.
- Chen M, Uchiyama A and Fane BA. Eliminating the requirement of an essential gene product in an already very small virus: scaffolding protein B-free oX174, B-free. J Mol Biol 373, 308-14, 2007.
- Skilton R, Cutcliffe L T, Pickett MA, Lambden PR, Fane BA and Clarke IN. Intracellular parasitism of chlamydiae: the specific infectivity of chlamydiaphage Chp2, in Chlamydophila abortus. J Bacteriol 189, 4957-9, 2007.
Peer-reviewed publications
Click here to see a listing of Peer-reviewed publications
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