Tevenvirinae phages encode a family of LSm-like fold proteins.

ABSTRACT: Uncharacterized bacteriophage proteins typically have little homology outside the phage world. An example is the T4 early protein GoF. Although the function of wild type goF is not known, the GoF mutant (D25Y) affects the level of T4 gene 41 mRNA under certain conditions. To investigate possible GoF functions, we leveraged the power of AlphaFold3. We found that despite having very dissimilar sequences, GoF and 2 other uncharacterized T4 early proteins, MotB.1 and Frd.2, are structurally similar with predicted N-terminal LSm-like fold motifs. Since this motif, which is found throughout biology, is frequently associated with an RNA function and the GoF(D25Y) mutation is found within the predicted LSm-like fold, we hypothesized that these proteins may affect gene expression. Con

SUBMITTER: Kim J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12152347 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature