Nature Communications (Jul 2020)

The architecture and stabilisation of flagellotropic tailed bacteriophages

  • Joshua M. Hardy,
  • Rhys A. Dunstan,
  • Rhys Grinter,
  • Matthew J. Belousoff,
  • Jiawei Wang,
  • Derek Pickard,
  • Hariprasad Venugopal,
  • Gordon Dougan,
  • Trevor Lithgow,
  • Fasséli Coulibaly

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17505-w
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Flagellotropic phages spin down flagella to reach the bacterial surface and must withstand remarkable drag forces. Here authors show how two nested sets of chainmail stabilise the viral head and a beta-hairpin regulates the formation of the robust yet pliable tail, characteristic of siphoviruses.