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J. Bacteriol., Nov 1995, 6601-6609, Vol 177, No. 22
MJ Loessner and S Scherer
A511 is a broad-host-range, virulent myovirus for Listeria monocytogenes.
The genes encoding major structural proteins of the capsid (cps) and tail
sheath (tsh) were mapped to a 10.15-kb late gene fragment. We have
determined the complete nucleotide sequence of this region and confirmed
the identities of Cps (48.7 kDa) and Tsh (61.3 kDa) by N-terminal amino
acid sequencing of both proteins. In addition, nine other open reading
frames were identified. On the basis of amino acid sequence homologies to
known phage-encoded proteins, some putative functions and locations could
be assigned to some of the deduced gene products. We present evidence that
the cps product is proteolytically cleaved between Lys-23 and Ser-24 to
yield the 444-residue polypeptide found in the mature viral capsid. We also
found that the N-terminal methionine is absent from the mature tail sheath
protein. cps and tsh are late genes; mRNAs first appear 15 to 20 min after
infection of L. monocytogenes. Northern (RNA) hybridizations of total late
mRNA with specific oligonucleotide probes were used to determine the sizes
of respective transcripts. Primer extension analyses enabled the positive
identification of six late promoters, which were found to differ from those
identified in the chromosome of Listeria spp. The bulk of transcripts from
cps and tsh arise from two phage promoters with identical 13-nucleotide
sequences (TGCTAGATTATAG [core region underlined]) in the -10 region which
we speculate determines specific and timed expression of these
genes.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Copyright © 1995, American Society for Microbiology
Organization and transcriptional analysis of the Listeria phage A511 late gene region comprising the major capsid and tail sheath protein genes cps and tsh
Institut fur Mikrobiologie, Forschungszentrum fur Milch und Lebensmittel Weihenstephan, Technische Universitat Munchen, Freising, Germany.
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