Rong-Cheng Yu, Feng Yang, Hong-Yan Zhang, Pu Hou, Kang Du, Jie Zhu, Ning Cui, Xudong Xu, Yuxing Chen, Qiong Li, Cong-Zhao Zhou
The Myoviridae cyanophage A-1(L) specifically infects the model cyanobacteria Anabaena sp. PCC 7120. Following our recent report on the capsid structure of A-1(L), here we present the high-resolution cryo-EM structure of its intact tail machine including the neck, tail and attached fibers. Besides the dodecameric portal, the neck contains a canonical hexamer connected to a unique pentadecamer that anchors five extended bead-chain-like neck fibers. The 1045-Å-long contractile tail is composed of a helical bundle of tape measure proteins surrounded by a layer of tube proteins and a layer of sheath proteins, ended with a five-component baseplate...
March 26, 2024: Nature Communications