title: Identification and specificity of pilus adsorption proteins of filamentous bacteriophages infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
abstract: Filamentous bacteriophages Pf1 and Pf3 infect Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains K and O, respectively. We show here that the capsids of these bacteriophages each contain a few copies of a minor coat protein (designated g3p) of high molecular mass, which serves as a pilus adsorption protein, much like the protein g3p of the Ff bacteriophages which infect Escherichia coli. Bacteriophage Pf1 was observed to interact with the type IV PAK pilus whereas bacteriophage Pf3 interacted with the conjugative RP4 pilus and not with the type IV PAO pilus. The specificity was found to be mediated by their pilus-binding proteins. This is evidence of a conserved pathway of infection among different classes of filamentous bacteriophage. However, there are likely to be subtle differences yet to be discovered in the way these virions effect entry into their targeted bacterial cells.
authors.affiliation: Cambridge Centre for Molecular Recognition, Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge, 80 Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1GA, UK.
authors.forename: Samantha J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Holland
authors.forename: Carolina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sanz
authors.forename: Richard N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Perham
mesh_terms: D000327:Adsorption; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D036022:Capsid Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D010861:Fimbriae, Bacterial / Q000821:virology*; D017912:Inovirus / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D011550:Pseudomonas aeruginosa / Q000821:virology*; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014771:Virion / Q000472:pathogenicity
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D004268:DNA-Binding Proteins; D014760:Viral Fusion Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins