scholarly journals Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host

Viruses ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1132
Author(s):  
Marina de Leeuw ◽  
Maayan Baron ◽  
Oshrit Ben David ◽  
Ariel Kushmaro

Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect bacteria, are considered to be highly host-specific. To add to the knowledge about the evolution and development of bacteriophage speciation toward its host, we conducted a 21-day experiment with the broad host-range bacteriophage Aquamicrobium phage P14. We incubated the phage, which was previously isolated and enriched with the Alphaproteobacteria Aquamicrobium H14, with the Betaproteobacteria Alcaligenaceae H5. During the experiment, we observed an increase in the phage’s predation efficacy towards Alcaligenaceae H5. Furthermore, genome analysis and the comparison of the bacteriophage’s whole genome indicated that rather than being scattered evenly along the genome, mutations occur in specific regions. In total, 67% of the mutations with a frequency higher than 30% were located in genes that encode tail proteins, which are essential for host recognition and attachment. As control, we incubated the phage with the Alphaproteobacteria Aquamicrobium H8. In both experiments, most of the mutations appeared in the gene encoding the tail fiber protein. However, mutations in the gene encoding the tail tubular protein B were only observed when the phage was incubated with Alcaligenaceae H5. This highlights the phage’s tail as a key player in its adaptation to different hosts. We conclude that mutations in the phage’s genome were mainly located in tail-related regions. Further investigation is needed to fully characterize the adaptation mechanisms of the Aquamicrobium phage P14.

2018 ◽  
Vol 90 (24) ◽  
pp. 14462-14468 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong He ◽  
Yanli Shi ◽  
Mengli Liu ◽  
Yingran Wang ◽  
Lin Wang ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 91 (15) ◽  
pp. 10335-10342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi-Ling Bai ◽  
Md. Shahed-Al-Mahmud ◽  
Karuppuchamy Selvaprakash ◽  
Nien-Tsung Lin ◽  
Yu-Chie Chen

Viruses ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meritxell Granell ◽  
Mikiyoshi Namura ◽  
Sara Alvira ◽  
Shuji Kanamaru ◽  
Mark van Raaij

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Saleem Iqbal Khan ◽  
Xiangzheng Gao ◽  
Keying Liang ◽  
Shengsheng Mei ◽  
Jinbiao Zhan

Phage-host interactions are likely to have the most critical aspect of phage biology. Phages are the most abundant and ubiquitous infectious acellular entities in the biosphere, where their presence remains elusive. Here, the novel Escherichia coli lytic bacteriophage, named MSK, was isolated from the lysed culture of E. coli C (phix174 host). The genome of phage MSK was sequenced, comprising 45,053 bp with 44.8% G + C composition. In total, 73 open reading frames (ORFs) were predicted, out of which 24 showed a close homology with known functional proteins, including one tRNA-arg; however, the other 49 proteins with no proven function in the genome database were called hypothetical. Electron Microscopy and genome characterization have revealed that MSK phage has a rosette-like tail tip. There were, in total, 46 ORFs which were homologous to the Rtp genome. Among these ORFs, the tail fiber protein with a locus tag of MSK_000019 was homologous to Rtp 43 protein, which determines the host specificity. The other protein, MSK_000046, encodes lipoprotein (cor gene); that protein resembles Rtp 45, responsible for preventing adsorption during cell lysis. Thirteen MSK structural proteins were identified by SDS-PAGE analysis. Out of these, 12 were vital structural proteins, and one was a hypothetical protein. Among these, the protein terminase large (MSK_000072) subunit, which may be involved in DNA packaging and proposed packaging strategy of MSK bacteriophage genome, takes place through headful packaging using the pac-sites. Biosafety assessment of highly stable phage MSK genome analysis has revealed that the phage did not possess virulence genes, which indicates proper phage therapy. MSK phage potentially could be used to inhibit the multidrug-resistant bacteria, including AMP, TCN, and Colistin. Further, a comparative genome and lifestyle study of MSK phage confirmed the highest similarity level (87.18% ANI). These findings suggest it to be a new lytic isolated phage species. Finally, Blast and phylogenetic analysis of the large terminase subunit and tail fiber protein put it in Rtp viruses’ genus of family Drexlerviridae.


1964 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Katz

Serological comparison between particle-bound T 2 phage lysozyme and lysozyme from T 2 phage lysates showed purified preparations of both enzymes to be contaminated to a small extent with T 2 tail fiber protein.The latter could be removed by gel filtration and does not possess enzymatic activity for its part.Both lysozymes have been obtained in crystalline form and were studied physico-chemically. They can be assumed to be identical.


2000 ◽  
Vol 381 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin R. Burda ◽  
Ingrid Hindennach ◽  
Stefan Miller

Abstract Adsorption of Teven bacteriophages to the E. coli host cell is mediated by long and short tail fibers. Bacteriophage T4 short tail fiber protein p12 was used to investigate the stability against thermal and chemical denaturation. Purified p12 is thermostable with a melting point of 78C. Guanidinium chlorideinduced denaturation displayed strong hysteresis and an intermediate between 2 and 3 denaturant. The transitions occur at 1.5 and 3.2 denaturant as revealed by fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism. The data suggest an equilibrium unfolding intermediate with a separate unfolding of the Cterminal knob domain and the shaft region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 794
Author(s):  
Cheng-Hung Luo ◽  
Ya-Han Hsu ◽  
Wen-Jui Wu ◽  
Kai-Chih Chang ◽  
Chen-Sheng Yeh

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria, replicating and multiplying using host resources. For specific infections, bacteriophages have developed extraordinary proteins for recognizing and degrading their host. Inspired by the remarkable development of viral proteins, we used the tail fiber protein to treat multiple drug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii. The tail fiber protein exhibits polysaccharide depolymerases activity which specifically degrades exopolysaccharide (EPS) during the phage–host interaction. However, EPS-degraded cells are observed altering host susceptibility to bacterial lysis peptide, the endolysin-derived peptide. Notably, endolysin is necessary in the process of progeny liberation by breaking the bacterial cell wall. Surprisingly, peeling the EPS animated host to resist colistin, the last-resort antibiotic used in multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria infection. Tail fiber-modified cell wall reduces colistin attachment, causing temporary antibiotic-resistance and possibly raising clinical risks in treating multiple drug-resistant A. baumannii.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lada V. Sycheva ◽  
Mikhail M. Shneider ◽  
Anastasia V. Popova ◽  
Rustam H. Ziganshin ◽  
Nikolay V. Volozhantsev ◽  
...  

AbstractThis report describes the structure of a putative tail fiber protein of the Acinetobacter baumannii bacteriophage AP22. The target host range of strictly lytic bacteriophage AP22 includes many clinical isolates of A. baumannii from hospitals in Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow and St. Petersburg (Russia), but its host cell binding apparatus remains uncharacterized. Here, we report the crystal structure of the C-terminal fragment of AP22 gene product 53 (gp53) one of its two putative host cell-binding proteins. We show that gp53 forms a trimeric fiber and binds ethylene glycol and glycerol molecules that represent known surrogates of the oligosaccharide backbone. However, despite its structural similarities to other phage/virus host cell-binding fibers and its binding to small sugar-like molecules, gp53 did not inhibit AP22 infection and its role in the infection process remains unclear.


2004 ◽  
Vol 186 (6) ◽  
pp. 1818-1832 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sherwood R. Casjens ◽  
Eddie B. Gilcrease ◽  
Wai Mun Huang ◽  
Kim L. Bunny ◽  
Marisa L. Pedulla ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Temperate bacteriophages with plasmid prophages are uncommon in nature, and of these only phages N15 and PY54 are known to have a linear plasmid prophage with closed hairpin telomeres. We report here the complete nucleotide sequence of the 51,601-bp Klebsiella oxytoca linear plasmid pKO2, and we demonstrate experimentally that it is also a prophage. We call this bacteriophage φKO2. An analysis of the 64 predicted φKO2 genes indicate that it is a fairly close relative of phage N15; they share a mosaic relationship that is typical of different members of double-stranded DNA tailed-phage groups. Although the head, tail shaft, and lysis genes are not recognizably homologous between these phages, other genes such as the plasmid partitioning, replicase, prophage repressor, and protelomerase genes (and their putative targets) are so similar that we predict that they must have nearly identical DNA binding specificities. The φKO2 virion is unusual in that its phage λ-like tails have an exceptionally long (3,433 amino acids) central tip tail fiber protein. The φKO2 genome also carries putative homologues of bacterial dinI and umuD genes, both of which are involved in the host SOS response. We show that these divergently transcribed genes are regulated by LexA protein binding to a single target site that overlaps both promoters.


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