Bacteriophage infection is targeted to cellular poles

Rotem Edgar*, Assaf Rokney, Morgan Feeney, Szabolcs Semsey, Martin Kessel, Marcia B. Goldberg, Sankar Adhya, Amos B. Oppenheim

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

82 Scopus citations

Abstract

The poles of bacteria exhibit several specialized functions related to the mobilization of DNA and certain proteins. To monitor the infection of Escherichia coli cells by light microscopy, we developed procedures for the tagging of mature bacteriophages with quantum dots. Surprisingly, most of the infecting phages were found attached to the bacterial poles. This was true for a number of temperate and virulent phages of E. coli that use widely different receptors and for phages infecting Yersinia pseudotuberculosis and Vibrio cholerae. The infecting phages colocalized with the polar protein marker IcsA-GFP. ManY, an E. coli protein that is required for phage λ DNA injection, was found to localize to the bacterial poles as well. Furthermore, labelling of λ DNA during infection revealed that it is injected and replicated at the polar region of infection. The evolutionary benefits that lead to this remarkable preference for polar infections may be related to λ's developmental decision as well as to the function of poles in the ability of bacterial cells to communicate with their environment and in gene regulation.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1107-1116
Number of pages10
JournalMolecular Microbiology
Volume68
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2008
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Bacteriophage infection is targeted to cellular poles'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this