Determination of the cleavage site of the phage T4 prohead protease in gene product 68. Influence of protein secondary structure on cleavage specificity.

The cleavage site of the T4 prohead protease in gene product 68 of bacteriophage T4 has been determined by direct protein sequencing. It is located close to the carboxy-terminal end of a predicted alpha-helix in the sequence Asn-Val-Glu-Ala between the Glu and Ala residues. Secondary structure seems to be more important in determining cleavage than the presence of an aliphatic amino acid three residues before the cleavage site that was proposed earlier. In this case, that position is occupied by Asn, a hydrophilic residue. A second potentially cleavable Glu-Ala is found five residues after the cleaved sequence and this is preceded by an Ile at the -3 position. Despite this, the sequences of the amino and carboxyl termini of the uncleaved protein are identical to those previously proposed from an analysis of the DNA sequence of the gene.