The circular dichroism (CD) spectrum of fd bacteriophage has a deep minimum at 222 nm characteristic of highly alpha-helical protein, but there is a shoulder at 208 nm rather than a minimum, with a 222/208-nm amplitude ratio near 1.5 rather than near 1. Oxidation of fd phage with the tryptophan reagent N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) changes the ratio. In this report, the NBS titration of fd is followed by CD and three other spectroscopies, the results of which yield an explanation of the unusual CD spectrum. Absorbance, fluorescence, and Raman data show the oxidation to have two phases, the first of which involves the destruction of tryptophan and the second, tryptophan and tyrosine. Raman spectra reveal the invariance of an environmentally-sensitive tyrosine Fermi resonance doublet during the first oxidative phase. Raman spectra also show that little or no change of alpha-helicity occurs in the first or second oxidation phase, although very slight changes in the helix parameters might be occurring. Concurrent with the destruction of tryptophan during the first phase is the appearance in CD difference spectra ([theta]NBS-treated fd - [theta]native fd) of positive maxima at 208-210 nm and negative maxima at 224 nm, with crossovers at 217 nm. Enormous difference ellipticities, per oxidized subunit of 50 amino acids, of +490,000 +/- 80,000 deg cm2 dmol-1 at 208 nm and -520,000 +/- 110,000 deg cm2 dmol-1 at 224 nm have been derived from the data.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Below 15°C, chloroform causes fd phage to contract to I‐forms, which are compact structures about 1/3 as long as the original phage. Above 15°C, chloroform causes I‐forms to contract to even more compact spheroidal S‐forms. Here we show that the coat protein structure in I‐forms is the same as the protein structure in the phage and the protein structure in S‐forms is the same as the protein structure in bilayers. The conversions from fda˚I‐forms→S‐forms are therefore suggested to mimic steps in fd penetration. The same conversions, in reverse order, are suggested to mimic steps in fd assembly.