The capsid contains the phage's 121,750 base pair, double-stranded DNAgenome which is predicted to encode about 162 proteins.[5][6] The genome has a unique sequence of 111,613 bp with two identical large direct terminal repetitions of 10,139 bp. When the genome sequence was published in 2005, only 61 (36.3%) of the 168 encoded proteins had been assigned functions based on homology to known sequences.[5] More than half of all genes (92 or 54.7%) were predicted ORFs lacking similarity to any known proteins.
Infection
Bacteriophage T5 has been shown to infect E. coli after its receptor binding protein, pb5, binds to the host cell's outer membrane ferrichrome transporter, FhuA. The binding triggers structural changes in pb5 and eventually leads to DNA release from the phage capsid.[7][8]
^van den Berg, Bert; Silale, Augustinas; Baslé, Arnaud; Brandner, Astrid F.; Mader, Sophie L.; Khalid, Syma (18 October 2022). "Structural basis for host recognition and superinfection exclusion by bacteriophage T5". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 119 (42). doi:10.1073/pnas.2211672119.
^Basit, Hajra; Shivaji Sharma, K.; Van der Heyden, Angéline; Gondran, Chantal; Breyton, Cécile; Dumy, Pascal; Winnik, Françoise M.; Labbé, Pierre (2012). "Amphipol mediated surface immobilization of FhuA: a platform for label-free detection of the bacteriophage protein pb5". Chemical Communications. 48 (48): 6037. doi:10.1039/c2cc31107k. PMID22576748.
