Bacteriophage φCb5
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''Bacteriophage φCb5'' is a
bacteriophage A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a phage (), is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria. The term is derived . Bacteriophages are composed of proteins that Capsid, encapsulate a DNA or RNA genome, and may have structu ...
that infects '' Caulobacter''
bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
and other caulobacteria. The bacteriophage was discovered in 1970, it belongs to the genus '' Cebevirus'' of the '' Steitzviridae'' family and is the namesake of the genus. The bacteriophage is widely distributed in the
soil Soil, also commonly referred to as earth, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, water, and organisms that together support the life of plants and soil organisms. Some scientific definitions distinguish dirt from ''soil'' by re ...
, freshwater
lakes A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...
,
streams A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large stream ...
and
seawater Seawater, or sea water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has approximat ...
, places where caulobacteria inhabit and can be sensitive to
salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...
. Inakaren Bendis, Lucille Sapiro (1970)
Properties of Caulobacter Ribonucleic Acid Bacteriophage φCb5
American Society of Microbiology.


Description

The
capsid A capsid is the protein shell of a virus, enclosing its genetic material. It consists of several oligomeric (repeating) structural subunits made of protein called protomers. The observable 3-dimensional morphological subunits, which may or m ...
has icosahedral geometries, and T = 3 symmetry. It does not have a
viral envelope A viral envelope is the outermost layer of many types of viruses. It protects the genetic material in their life cycle when traveling between host cells. Not all viruses have envelopes. A viral envelope protein or E protein is a protein in the en ...
. The diameter is around 26 nm. The
genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...
s are linear, positive single-stranded RNA, and about 3.4 kb in length. The genome segmentation is monopartite and has 2 or 3 ORFs.
Viral replication Viral replication is the formation of biological viruses during the infection process in the target host cells. Viruses must first get into the cell before viral replication can occur. Through the generation of abundant copies of its genome ...
occurs in the
cytoplasm The cytoplasm describes all the material within a eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, including the organelles and excluding the nucleus in eukaryotic cells. The material inside the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell a ...
and entry into the bacterial cell occurs by penetration into the
pilus A pilus (Latin for 'hair'; : pili) is a hair-like cell-surface appendage found on many bacteria and archaea. The terms ''pilus'' and '' fimbria'' (Latin for 'fringe'; plural: ''fimbriae'') can be used interchangeably, although some researchers ...
. The routes of transmission are by contact.Leviviridae
Viralzone. The bacteriophage is similar to the
RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule that is essential for most biological functions, either by performing the function itself (non-coding RNA) or by forming a template for the production of proteins (messenger RNA). RNA and deoxyrib ...
bacteriophage A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a phage (), is a virus that infects and replicates within bacteria. The term is derived . Bacteriophages are composed of proteins that Capsid, encapsulate a DNA or RNA genome, and may have structu ...
s of ''
Escherichia ''Escherichia'' ( ) is a genus of Gram-negative, non-Endospore, spore-forming, Facultative anaerobic organism, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria from the family Enterobacteriaceae. In those species which are inhabitants of the gastroin ...
'' in that it is composed of a single positive single-stranded RNA molecule and a
protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...
coat with two structural proteins and apparently contains the genetic ability to encode a subunit of the coat protein, a maturation-like protein and a similar
RNA replicase RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) or RNA replicase is an enzyme that catalyzes the replication of RNA from an RNA template. Specifically, it catalyzes synthesis of the RNA strand complementary to a given RNA template. This is in contrast to ...
. The φCb5 bacteriophage differs from ''
Escherichia ''Escherichia'' ( ) is a genus of Gram-negative, non-Endospore, spore-forming, Facultative anaerobic organism, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped bacteria from the family Enterobacteriaceae. In those species which are inhabitants of the gastroin ...
'' RNA bacteriophages in host specificity, salt sensitivity, and the presence of
histidine Histidine (symbol His or H) is an essential amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an Amine, α-amino group (which is in the protonated –NH3+ form under Physiological condition, biological conditions), a carboxylic ...
, but not
methionine Methionine (symbol Met or M) () is an essential amino acid in humans. As the precursor of other non-essential amino acids such as cysteine and taurine, versatile compounds such as SAM-e, and the important antioxidant glutathione, methionine play ...
, in the coat protein. As for related bacteriophages, ORFs encode maturation, coat, RNA replicase, and lysis proteins, but unlike other members of ''
Leviviricetes ''Leviviricetes'' is a class of viruses, which infect prokaryotes. Most of these bacteriophages were discovered by metagenomics Metagenomics is the study of all genetics, genetic material from all organisms in a particular environment, prov ...
'', the φCb5
lysis Lysis ( ; from Greek 'loosening') is the breaking down of the membrane of a cell, often by viral, enzymic, or osmotic (that is, "lytic" ) mechanisms that compromise its integrity. A fluid containing the contents of lysed cells is called a ...
protein gene completely overlaps with RNA replicase in a single frame different reading. The lysis protein of φCb5 is approximately twice as long as that of the distantly related
bacteriophage MS2 Bacteriophage MS2 (''Emesvirus zinderi''), commonly called MS2, is an icosahedral, positive-sense single-stranded RNA virus that infects the bacterium ''Escherichia coli'' and other members of the Enterobacteriaceae. MS2 is a member of a family ...
and presumably contains two transmembrane helices. Andris Kazaks, Tatyana Voronkova, Janis Rumnieks, Andris Dishlers, Kaspars Tars (2011)
Genome Structure of Caulobacter Phage phiCb5
American Society of Microbiology.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q107986589 Bacteriophages Riboviria