Toroidal surface complexes of bacteriophage {phi}12 are responsible for host-cell attachment
- Skirball Institute, Department of Cell Biology, New York University School of Medicine, 540 First Ave., New York, NY 10016 (United States)
- Department of Mathematics, City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10031 (United States)
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10031 (United States)
- Department of Physics, City College of New York, 160 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10031 (United States)
- New York Structural Biology Center, 89 Convent Ave., New York, NY 10027 (United States)
Cryo-electron tomography and subtomogram averaging are utilized to determine that the bacteriophage {phi}12, a member of the Cystoviridae family, contains surface complexes that are toroidal in shape, are composed of six globular domains with six-fold symmetry, and have a discrete density connecting them to the virus membrane-envelope surface. The lack of this kind of spike in a reassortant of {phi}12 demonstrates that the gene for the hexameric spike is located in {phi}12's medium length genome segment, likely to the P3 open reading frames which are the proteins involved in viral-host cell attachment. Based on this and on protein mass estimates derived from the obtained averaged structure, it is suggested that each of the globular domains is most likely composed of a total of four copies of P3a and/or P3c proteins. Our findings may have implications in the study of the evolution of the cystovirus species in regard to their host specificity. - Research Highlights: > Subtomogram averaging reveals enhanced detail of a {phi}12 cystovirus surface protein complex. > The surface protein complex has a toroidal shape and six-fold symmetry. > It is encoded by the medium-size genome segment. > The proteins of the surface complex most likely are one copy of P3a and three copies of P3c.
- OSTI ID:
- 21587868
- Journal Information:
- Virology, Vol. 414, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1016/j.virol.2011.03.020; PII: S0042-6822(11)00145-0; Copyright (c) 2011 Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam, The Netherlands, All rights reserved.; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0042-6822
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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