Project description:Phages are viruses that specifically infect and kill bacteria. Bacterial fermentation and biotechnology industries see them as enemies, however, they are also investigated for the treatment or prevention of infections caused by multidrug resistant bacteria. Whether foes or allies, their importance is undeniable. Despite decades of research some aspects of phage biology are still poorly understood. In this study, we used label-free quantitative proteomics to reveal the proteotypes of Lactococcus lactis MG1363 during infection by the virulent phage p2, a model for studying the biology of phages infecting Gram-positive bacteria. Our approach resulted in the high-confidence detection and quantification of 59% of the theoretical bacterial proteome, including 226 bacterial proteins detected only during phage infection and 6 proteins unique to uninfected bacteria. We also identified many bacterial proteins of differing abundance during the infection. Using this high-throughput proteomic datasets, we selected specific bacterial genes for inactivation using CRISPR-Cas9 to investigate their involvement in phage replication. One knockout mutant lacking gene llmg_0219 showed resistance to phage p2 due to a deficiency in phage adsorption. Furthermore, we detected and quantified 78% of the theoretical phage proteome and identified many proteins of phage p2 that had not been previously detected. Among others, we uncovered a conserved small phage protein (ORFN1) coded by an unannotated gene. We also applied a targeted approach to achieve greater sensitivity and identify undetected phage proteins that were expected to be present. This allowed us to follow the fate of ORF46, a small phage protein of low abundance. In summary, this work offers a unique view of the virulent phages’ takeover of bacterial cells and provides novel information on phage-host interactions.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of NHDF Cells comparing control untreated fibroblasts with fibroblasts coincubated with three different species of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato group.
Project description:The lactococcal phage p2 is a model for studying the Skunavirus genus, the most prevalent group of phages in cheese factories worldwide. It infects L. lactis MG1363, a model strain for the study of Gram-positive bacteria. The structural proteins of phage p2 have been thoroughly described. However, most of its non-structural proteins are still uncharacterized. Here, we developed an integrative approach, making use of structural biology, genomics, physiology, and proteomics to provide insights into the function of ORF47, the most conserved non-structural protein of unknown function among the Skunavirus genus. We found this small phage protein to have a major impact on the bacterial proteome and to be important to prevent bacterial resistance to phage infection.
