Dynamics of telescoping Inovirus: a mechanism for assembly at membrane adhesions.

Telescoping of Inovirus (filamentous bacteriophage) into short hollow tubes by organic solvents suggests a molecular mechanism both for infection and for maturation of the virion at adhesions between the inner and outer bacterial membranes. The symmetry of alpha-helix subunit arrangement in the virion is related to the symmetry of leaf arrangement in plants (phyllotaxis) and is conserved in a molecular rearrangement model of the telescope.