Evidence for bacteriophage T7 tail extension during DNA injection.

BMC Research Notes
P SerwerSusan T Weintraub

Abstract

Electron micrographs of bacteriophage T7 reveal a tail shorter than needed to reach host cytoplasm during infection-initiating injection of a T7 DNA molecule through the tail and cell envelope. However, recent data indicate that internal T7 proteins are injected before the DNA molecule is injected. Thus, bacteriophage/host adsorption potentially causes internal proteins to become external and lengthen the tail for DNA injection. But, the proposed adsorption-induced tail lengthening has never been visualized. In the present study, electron microscopy of particles in T7 lysates reveals a needle-like capsid extension that attaches partially emptied bacteriophage T7 capsids to non-capsid vesicles and sometimes enters an attached vesicle. This extension is 40-55 nm long, 1.7-2.4x longer than the T7 tail and likely to be the proposed lengthened tail. The extension is 8-11 nm in diameter, thinner than most of the tail, with an axial hole 3-4 nm in diameter. Though the bound vesicles are not identified by microscopy, these vesicles resemble the major vesicles in T7 lysates, found to be E. coli outer membrane vesicles by non-denaturing agarose gel electrophoresis, followed by mass spectrometry. The observed lengthened tail is long enoug...Continue Reading

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Citations

May 31, 2012·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Carmela Garcia-Doval, Mark J van Raaij
Aug 21, 2013·PloS One·Justin C LeavittSherwood R Casjens
Oct 16, 2015·Bacteriophage·Verónica A González-GarcíaJosé L Carrascosa
Feb 4, 2010·Journal of Molecular Biology·Philip SerwerWen Jiang
Feb 6, 2014·Bacteriophage·Philip Serwer
Dec 16, 2017·Biophysics Reviews·Philip SerwerWen Jiang
Dec 28, 2017·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Lingfei LiangLiang Tang
Mar 25, 2017·Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology·Agnieszka LatkaZuzanna Drulis-Kawa
Jul 3, 2021·Molecular Cell·Nicholas A SwansonGino Cingolani

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
electron microscopy
light scattering
electrophoresis

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