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Structural Studies on the Bacteriophage Φ6 and Its Transformations during Its Life Cycle
Version 1
: Received: 24 October 2023 / Approved: 24 October 2023 / Online: 25 October 2023 (10:22:19 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Heymann, J.B. Structural Studies of Bacteriophage Φ6 and Its Transformations during Its Life Cycle. Viruses 2023, 15, 2404. Heymann, J.B. Structural Studies of Bacteriophage Φ6 and Its Transformations during Its Life Cycle. Viruses 2023, 15, 2404.
Abstract
From the first isolation of the cystovirus bacteriophage Φ6 from Pseudomonas syringae 50 years ago, we have progressed to a better understanding of the structure and transformations of the many parts of the virion. The three-layered virion encapsulating the tripartite double stranded RNA (dsRNA) genome, breaches the cell envelope on infection, generates its own transcripts, and coopts the bacterial machinery to produce its proteins. The generation of new virions starts with a procapsid with a contracted shape, followed by packaging single stranded RNA segments with concurrent expansion of the capsid, and finally replication to reconstitute the dsRNA genome. The outer two layers are then added, and the fully formed virions released by cell lysis. Most of the procapsid structure composed of the proteins P1, P2, P4 and P7 is now known, as well as its transformations to the mature, packaged nucleocapsid. The outer two layers are less well studied. One additional study investigated the binding of the host protein YajQ to the infecting nucleocapsid, where it enhances the transcription of the large RNA segment that codes for the capsid proteins. Finally, we relate the structural aspects of bacteriophage Φ6 top those of other dsRNA viruses, noting the similarities and differences.
Keywords
Cystoviridae; cryoEM; dsRNA; ssRNA; RNA-dependent RNA polymerase; virus capsid; virus envelope; virus infection
Subject
Biology and Life Sciences, Virology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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