BACTERIOPHAGE-T4 HOST-RANGE IS EXPANDED BY DUPLICATIONS OF A SMALL DOMAIN OF THE TAIL FIBER ADHESIN

Citation
F. Tetart et al., BACTERIOPHAGE-T4 HOST-RANGE IS EXPANDED BY DUPLICATIONS OF A SMALL DOMAIN OF THE TAIL FIBER ADHESIN, Journal of Molecular Biology, 258(5), 1996, pp. 726-731
Citations number
32
Categorie Soggetti
Biology
ISSN journal
00222836
Volume
258
Issue
5
Year of publication
1996
Pages
726 - 731
Database
ISI
SICI code
0022-2836(1996)258:5<726:BHIEBD>2.0.ZU;2-5
Abstract
The adsorption specificity of T4 is determined by the tip of the gene 37 tail fibers which bind to receptors on the bacterial surface. T4 in fects only Escherichia coli and closely related Shigella species, but rare host range mutants can be isolated that infect Yersinia pseudotub erculosis I, an evolutionally distant bacterium. Some of these mutatio ns result in amino acid residue substitutions in the C-terminal portio n of gene 37, but others involve unequal exchanges between a series of sequence motifs (I-lis boxes) in the same reg;ion. The duplication or mutational alteration of this segment apparently suffices for phage a dsorption to a Yersinia receptor. It is suggested that recombination b etween the His box sequences can generate diversity in phage host rang e by shuffling receptor recognition domains. (C) 1996 Academic Press L imited