On the Occurrence and Multimerization of Two-Polypeptide Phage Endolysins Encoded in Single Genes.

ABSTRACT: Bacteriophages (phages) and other viruses are extremely efficient in packing their genetic information, with several described cases of overlapping genes encoded in different open reading frames (ORFs). While less frequently reported, specific cases exist in which two overlapping ORFs are in frame and share the stop codon. Here, we studied the occurrence of this genetic arrangement in endolysins, the phage enzymes that cut the bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan to release the virion progeny. After screening over 3,000 endolysin sequences of phages infecting Gram-positive bacteria, we found evidence that this coding strategy is frequent in endolysin genes. Our bioinformatics predictions were experimentally validated by demonstrating that two polypeptides are indeed produced from these genes.

SUBMITTER: Pinto D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9430671 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature