ArticleNature2016
The bacteriophage ϕ29 tail possesses a pore-forming loop for cell membrane penetration.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phage tail protein methylation enabling the virus to bind to the surface of bacterial cells is vital for progeny infectivity.Cell insight · 2026Article
- Phage-derived proteins: Advancing food safety through biocontrol and detection of foodborne pathogens.Comprehensive reviews in food science and food safety · 2025Review
- Viral Genome Delivery Across Bacterial Cell Surfaces.Annual review of microbiology · 2024Review
- Origin, Evolution and Diversity of φ29-like Phages-Review and Bioinformatic Analysis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Article
- Phage Adsorption to Gram-Positive Bacteria.Viruses · 2023Review
- Structure and host specificity ofScience advances · 2022Article
- A viral genome packaging motor transitions between cyclic and helical symmetry to translocate dsDNA.Science advances · 2021Article
- Structure and mechanism of DNA delivery of a gene transfer agent.Nature communications · 2020Article
- Rapid 3-dimensional shape determination of globular proteins by mobility capillary electrophoresis and native mass spectrometry.Chemical science · 2020Article
- Structure and genome ejection mechanism ofScience advances · 2019Article
- Structural assembly of the tailed bacteriophage ϕ29.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Structural Analysis of Biomolecules through a Combination of Mobility Capillary Electrophoresis and Mass Spectrometry.ACS omega · 2019Article
- Targeting mechanisms of tailed bacteriophages.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2018Review
- Article
- Lipid environment of membrane proteins in cryo-EM based structural analysis.Biophysical reviews · 2018Review
- Artificial bio-nanomachines based on protein needles derived from bacteriophage T4.Biophysical reviews · 2018Review
- Bacteriophage T5 tail tube structure suggests a trigger mechanism for Siphoviridae DNA ejection.Nature communications · 2017Article
- Membrane Penetration by Bacterial Viruses.Journal of virology · 2017Review
- Ultrastructural analysis of bacteriophage Φ29 during infection of Bacillus subtilis.Journal of structural biology · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Most bacteriophages are tailed bacteriophages with an isometric or a prolate head attached to a long contractile, long non-contractile, or short non-contractile tail. The tail is a complex machine that plays a central role in host cell recognition and attachment, cell wall and membrane penetration, and viral genome ejection. The mechanisms involved in the penetration of the inner host cell membrane by bacteriophage tails are not well understood. Here we describe structural and functional studies of the bacteriophage ϕ29 tail knob protein gene product 9 (gp9). The 2.0 Å crystal structure of gp9 shows that six gp9 molecules form a hexameric tube structure with six flexible hydrophobic loops blocking one end of the tube before DNA ejection. Sequence and structural analyses suggest that the loops in the tube could be membrane active. Further biochemical assays and electron microscopy structural analyses show that the six hydrophobic loops in the tube exit upon DNA ejection and form a channel that spans the lipid bilayer of the membrane and allows the release of the bacteriophage genomic DNA, suggesting that cell membrane penetration involves a pore-forming mechanism similar to that of certain non-enveloped eukaryotic viruses. A search of other phage tail proteins identified similar hydrophobic loops, which indicates that a common mechanism might be used for membrane penetration by prokaryotic viruses. These findings suggest that although prokaryotic and eukaryotic viruses use apparently very different mechanisms for infection, they have evolved similar mechanisms for breaching the cell membrane.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.