# Initiation of Phage Infection

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN · 2020 · $315,605

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Bacteriophages facilitate the evolution of bacterial pathogenicity by imposing selection for resistance
to infection and by horizontal gene transfer of host genes to new bacteria. Temperate phages also
often carry toxins and factors that convert benign bacteria into virulent pathogens, and they promote
the spread of infection. In order to infect a host bacterium, the phage must adsorb to a cell surface,
and then breach the integrity of the cell envelope. Most phages utilize their tails to initiate infection
but the short-tailed Podoviridae cannot directly access the cell cytoplasm in order to deliver their
genome. The initial steps of infection leading to genome ejection, especially how the channel,
extending from the phage head through the cell membrane(s) and into the cell cytoplasm forms,
remain the least understood aspects of any phage life cycle. This channel is essential for genome
ejection. Some phages, salmonellaphage P22 among them, carry proteins inside their head that are
ejected into cells to functionally extend tail length and create a trans-envelope channel for DNA
transport. Our central hypothesis is that after adsorption, the P22 tail ejection nanomachine initiates a
cascade of coordinated conformational changes in the virion that triggers ejection of three head
proteins, resulting in a trans-envelope channel for genome transport into the host bacterium. Our
immediate objective is to document these conformational rearrangements by characterizing structural
intermediates during infection, localizing the ejected proteins in the infected cell. Using molecular
genetics of both phage and host, and in combination with high throughput and high-resolution cryo-
electron tomography (cryoET), we will analyze abortive infections by defective virions. Our novel and
truly cross-disciplinary approach has already revealed essential structural intermediates in the
process of viral infection. Biochemical analyses of the three ejected proteins will provide
complementary information on the size, structure and assembly of the trans-envelope channel. This
study is already providing new molecular insights into the mechanistic pathways leading to phage
infection.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9929606
- **Project number:** 5R01GM124378-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
- **Principal Investigator:** IAN J MOLINEUX
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $315,605
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2023-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9929606

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9929606, Initiation of Phage Infection (5R01GM124378-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9929606. Licensed CC0.

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