Structure of bacteriophage SU10 from the family Podoviridae

Marta Šiborová ,¹ Tibor Füzik, ¹ Callum J. Cooper, ² Anders S. Nilson, ² Pavel Plevka ¹

¹ Structural Virology, Central European Institute of Technology, Kamenice 753/5, Brno, CZ

² Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute Stockholm University, SE-10691, Stockholm, SE

Bacteriophage SU10, from the family Podoviridae, can infect a wide range of E. coli strains. The phage has 77kbp dsDNA genome, prolate capsid, with the length of 135 nm and the diameter of 42 nm. Contrary to what was observed in most Podoviridae phages, bacteriophage SU10 has 27 nm long tail. Furthermore, the baseplate of SU10 changes conformation upon infection.

We used Cryo-electron microscopy and localized single particle reconstruction approach to determine the structure of portal, tail, base plate of SU10. Furthermore, we also characterized their conformational changes associated with cell-wall binding and genome ejection. The dodecameric portal complex has prolonged crown-barrel, similar to that of phage P22. In contrast to phage P22, the crown-barrel of SU10 portal is stable even after the DNA ejection. Description of structural changes of tail and base plate will improve our understanding of the mechanism of host recognition and genome delivery of bacteriophage SU10.

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