Stoichiometric packaging of the three genomic segments of double-stranded RNA bacteriophage phi6.

A model that explains the stoichiometric packaging of the chromosomes of phi6, a bacteriophage with a genome of three unique double-stranded RNA segments, is proposed and supported. Ordered switches in packaging specificity and RNA synthesis are determined by the amount of RNA within the procapsid. The plus strand of segment S binds to one of several sites on the outside of the empty procapsid. The RNA enters and the procapsid expands so that the S sites are lost and M sites appear. Packaging of segment M results in the loss of the M sites and the appearance of the L sites. Packaging of L readies the particle for minus-strand synthesis. If any of the segments is less than normal size, packaging of that class of segments continues until the normal content of RNA for that segment is packaged and the binding sites then change.