Publication Date:
2016-05-20
Description:
Several systems, including contractile tail bacteriophages, the type VI secretion system and R-type pyocins, use a multiprotein tubular apparatus to attach to and penetrate host cell membranes. This macromolecular machine resembles a stretched, coiled spring (or sheath) wound around a rigid tube with a spike-shaped protein at its tip. A baseplate structure, which is arguably the most complex part of this assembly, relays the contraction signal to the sheath. Here we present the atomic structure of the approximately 6-megadalton bacteriophage T4 baseplate in its pre- and post-host attachment states and explain the events that lead to sheath contraction in atomic detail. We establish the identity and function of a minimal set of components that is conserved in all contractile injection systems and show that the triggering mechanism is universally conserved.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Taylor, Nicholas M I -- Prokhorov, Nikolai S -- Guerrero-Ferreira, Ricardo C -- Shneider, Mikhail M -- Browning, Christopher -- Goldie, Kenneth N -- Stahlberg, Henning -- Leiman, Petr G -- England -- Nature. 2016 May 18;533(7603):346-52. doi: 10.1038/nature17971.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), BSP-415, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. ; Winogradsky Institute of Microbiology, Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, pr. 60-letiya Oktyabrya, 7 build. 2, 117312, Moscow, Russia. ; Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Laboratory of Molecular Bioengineering, 16/10 Miklukho-Maklaya St., 117997 Moscow, Russia. ; Center for Cellular Imaging and NanoAnalytics (C-CINA), Biozentrum, University of Basel, Mattenstrasse 26, 4058 Basel, Switzerland.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27193680" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
