Cryo-EM structure of ssDNA bacteriophage ΦCjT23 provides insight into early virus evolution

Nejc Kejzar, Elina Laanto, Ilona Rissanen, Vahid Abrishami, Muniyandi Selvaraj, Sylvain Moineau, Janne Ravantti, Lotta-Riina Sundberg () and Juha T. Huiskonen ()
Additional contact information
Nejc Kejzar: University of Helsinki
Elina Laanto: University of Helsinki
Ilona Rissanen: University of Helsinki
Vahid Abrishami: University of Helsinki
Muniyandi Selvaraj: University of Helsinki
Sylvain Moineau: Université Laval, Québec City
Janne Ravantti: University of Helsinki
Lotta-Riina Sundberg: University of Jyväskylä
Juha T. Huiskonen: University of Helsinki

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract The origin of viruses remains an open question. While lack of detectable sequence similarity hampers the analysis of distantly related viruses, structural biology investigations of conserved capsid protein structures facilitate the study of distant evolutionary relationships. Here we characterize the lipid-containing ssDNA temperate bacteriophage ΦCjT23, which infects Flavobacterium sp. (Bacteroidetes). We report ΦCjT23-like sequences in the genome of strains belonging to several Flavobacterium species. The virion structure determined by cryogenic electron microscopy reveals similarities to members of the viral kingdom Bamfordvirae that currently consists solely of dsDNA viruses with a major capsid protein composed of two upright β-sandwiches. The minimalistic structure of ΦCjT23 suggests that this phage serves as a model for the last common ancestor between ssDNA and dsDNA viruses in the Bamfordvirae. Both ΦCjT23 and the related phage FLiP infect Flavobacterium species found in several environments, suggesting that these types of viruses have a global distribution and a shared evolutionary origin. Detailed comparisons to related, more complex viruses not only expand our knowledge about this group of viruses but also provide a rare glimpse into early virus evolution.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-35123-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-35123-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-35123-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().