Publication details
Structure of a staphylococcal phage connector protein
| Authors | |
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| Year of publication | 2019 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Antibiotic resistance of microorganisms is a major threat accounting for a rising number of deaths. Bacteriophages offer an alternative to conventional antimicrobial treatment. Phage phi812 is a lytic virus from the Myoviridae family infecting up to 95 % of Staphylococcus aureus strains, including MRSA and its structure was previously determined by cryo-electron microscopy. Here we present our work towards resolving the structure of protein gp99 forming the connector region. The protein may play a role in genome release regulation during infection. Gp99 was overexpressed in E. coli and purified by affinity and size exclusion chromatography. A suitable crystallization condition was found and X-ray diffraction data with a resolution of 2.2 A were collected. To solve the phase problem, a variety of methods had been tried, including molecular replacement, heavy atom soaking, co-crystallization, and seleno-methionine incorporation. The structure of gp99 will help explain the mechanism of bacterial infection by bacteriophage. |