title: Afp14 is involved in regulating the length of Anti-feeding prophage (Afp).
abstract: The anti-feeding prophage (Afp), a phage-tail-like particle that causes cessation of feeding in the New Zealand grass grub, Costelytra zealandica, is encoded by 18 open reading frames (afp1-18). C-terminal truncations of afp14 resulted in shortened Afp particles, suggesting that Afp14 is involved in Afp length determination. We constructed an Afp assembly system (afp1-18), wherein Afp14 was truncated after the N-terminal 88 residues. This construct, when expressed in trans in Escherichia coli expressing a N-terminal 98-amino acid Afp14 construct, yielded fully assembled Afp but no assembled Afp was detected in the case of a N-terminal 96-amino acid Afp14 construct. These results suggested that the 98 N-terminal, amino acid residues of Afp14 is crucial for the initiation of Afp assembly via baseplate formation. Trans-based expression of wild-type afp14 resulted in Afp particles of varying lengths, all of which were shorter than the wild-type Afp particle. On the other hand, similar expression of Afp14 harboring a C-terminal extension (KLLEH(6)) resulted in elongated Afp particles. This information, combined with bioinformatics data, allowed us to propose a model delineating the mechanism and role of Afp14 in the maturation of the Afp particle.
authors.affiliation: Innovative Farm Systems, AgResearch, Lincoln Research Centre, Private Bag 4749, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Daria
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rybakova
authors.affiliation: Academy of Life Science, Engineering, and Design, Saxion University of Applied Science, Enschede, M.H. Tromplaan 28, 7513 AB, Enschede, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Schramm
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, Thomas Building, 3A Symonds Street, Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Alok K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Mitra
authors.affiliation: Innovative Farm Systems, AgResearch, Lincoln Research Centre, Private Bag 4749, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand.
authors.forename: Mark R H
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Hurst
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D001517:Coleoptera / Q000821:virology*; D019295:Computational Biology; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics; D008958:Models, Molecular; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D039002:Prophages / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014764:Viral Proteins