mutually exclusive) roles of chaperonin interior: passive and active. Passive models treat the chaperonin cage as an inert form, exerting influence by reducing the conformational space accessible to a protein substrate or preventing intermolecular interactions e.g. by aggregation prevention. The active chaperonin role is in turn involved with specific chaperonin–substrate interactions that may be coupled to conformational rearrangements of the chaperonin. Probably the most popular model of the chaperonin active role is the iterative annealing mechanism (IAM), which focuses on the effect of iterative, and hydrophobic in nature, binding of the protein substrate to the chaperonin. According to computational simulation studies, the IAM leads to more productive folding by unfolding the substrate from misfolded conformations or by prevention from protein misfolding through changing the folding pathway. Conservation of structural and functional homology As mentioned, all cells contain chaperonins. In bacteria, the archetype is the well-characterized chaperonin GroEL from E. coli. In archaea, the chaperonin is called the thermosome. In eukarya, the cytoplasmic chaperonin is called CCT (also called TRiC). These protein complexes appear to be essential for life in E. coli, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and higher eukaryotes. While there are differences between eukaryotic, bacterial and archaeal chaperonins, the general structure and mechanism are conserved. Bacteriophage T4 morphogenesis The gene product 31 (gp31) of bacteriophage T4 is a protein required for bacteriophage morphogenesis that acts catalytically rather than being incorporated into the bacteriophage structure. The bacterium E. coli is the host for bacteriophage T4. The bacteriophage encoded gp31 protein appears to be homologous to the E. coli cochaperonin protein GroES and is able to substitute for it in the assembly of phage T4 virions during infection. Like GroES, gp31 forms a stable complex with GroEL chaperonin that is absolutely necessary for the folding and assembly in vivo of the bacteriophage T4 major capsid protein gp23. The main reason for the phage to need its own GroES homolog is that the gp23 protein is too large to fit into a conventional GroES cage. gp31 has longer loops that create a taller container. Clinical significance Human GroEL is the immunodominant antigen of patients with Legionnaire's disease, and is thought to play a role in the protection of the Legionella bacteria from oxygen radicals within macrophages. This hypothesis is based on the finding that the cpn60 gene is upregulated in response to hydrogen peroxide, a source of oxygen radicals. Cpn60 has also been found to