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Bacteriophage Prd1: A Broad Host Range Dsdna Tectivirus With an Internal Membrane

1995; Elsevier BV; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/s0065-3527(08)60064-0

1557-8399

Dennis H. Bamford, Javier Caldentey, Jaana K. H. Bamford,

Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies

The widely used phage isolation method, described in Adams, includes a chloroform treatment step. As a result, bacterial viruses have been considered to be nucleic acid-protein assemblies. The omission of the organic solvent treatment from the isolation process resulted in the isolation of phages that also had a membrane component. The Tectiviridae are one of the most common phage groups containing a biological membrane. The Tectiviridae are divided into two subgroups, those infecting gram-positive and those infecting gram-negative hosts. The type organism for the gram-negative subgroup is PRD1, the other isolates being PR3, PR4, PR5, L17, and PR772. The best studied members of this virus group are PRD1 and PR4, and information given in this review is based mostly on the results obtained with these two virus systems. A comprehensive description on the current knowledge on PRD1 and related viruses are given in this chapter. Two characteristics, in particular, have drawn attention to the PRD1-type viruses: (1) the virion has an outer rigid protein capsid, inside of which resides a membrane that follows the internal capsid surface. (2) the viral genome is a linear dsDNA molecule that has a covalently linked protein at the 5' ends and inverted terminal repeat (ITR) sequences at both termini.