Year: 2022

SHARED TOOLKIT. "Two evolutionary related structures, of pyocin and of the type VI secretion system, are found in bacteria as defense systems to kill competing bacteria. These structures are remarkably similar to the tail baseplate structure of bacteriophages, suggesting that tail baseplate-like structures are effective organelles for infecting bacteria." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

BASEPLATE CONFORMATION CHANGE ON INFECTION. "Although these two structures represent different minima in the total energy landscape of the baseplate assembly, as the dome-shaped structure readily changes to the star-shaped structure when the virus infects a host bacterium, the dome-shaped structure must have more energy than the star-shaped structure." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

DOME TO STAR SHAPE. "This study examines how the high-energy, dome-shaped infectious form of the bacteriophage T4 baseplate assembles as opposed to how it assembles in the low-energy, star-shaped form that occurs after infection." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

PHAGE BASEPLATE COMPOSITION. "The hexagonal dome-shaped T4 baseplate assembles from six wedges surrounding a central hub. A total of 134 protein subunits from 15 different proteins form the ∼6.5-MDa baseplate." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

STAR ASSEMBLY. "The assembly of a wedge had been shown to follow a strictly ordered sequence. First, an initial complex is formed by a monomer of gp7 and a trimer of gp10, followed sequentially by binding of a dimer of gp8 and a dimer of gp6 to the complex. In the absence of a central hub, at least five proteins (gp7, gp10, gp8, gp6, and gp53) are required for assembly of wedges in vitro into a star-shaped, low-energy baseplate-like structure." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

ENERGY SOURCE. "Biological machines require energy that can be provided by catalyzing a chemical reaction of high-energy molecules such as ATP, or by using the energy stored when macromolecules fold and assemble." http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

PHAGE BASEPLATES. "The current analysis of the T4 baseplate shows how the energy required for infection can in part be stored in the dome-shaped baseplate; it also shows that assembly of the dome-shaped baseplate requires the presence of a template (the central hub) that traps wedges by selecting wedges when they are briefly in a high-energy conformation." A spaceship from Mars. http://www.pnas.org/content/113/10/2654.full View in LinkedIn

HIGH PRESSURE DNA STORAGE UNIT. "The dsDNA bacterial viruses (phages or bacteriophages) and herpes viruses keep their genetic information packed at high pressure inside an icosahedral protein capsid. During virus particle assembly the genome is translocated into a prebuilt procapsid through a specialized portal vertex of the capsid." (dsDNA = double stranded DNA). https://lnkd.in/dw4E_8F View in LinkedIn

LOCKED INTO LAUNCH VESSEL. "Termination of the DNA packaging reaction is coordinated with closure of the portal system to avoid leakage of the viral genome. The outflow of DNA is prevented by conformational changes in the portal protein and binding of head completion proteins building the viral genome gatekeeper." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn

EXIT CHUTE MECHANISM. "DNA is locked in a capsid by gp16 loops that close the channel by an allosteric mechanism. Gp16 appears to open by a diaphragm-like motion, allowing the genome to exit the capsid through the tail tube to the host cell." http://www.pnas.org/content/112/22/7009.full View in LinkedIn