Structural Study of the Cobetia marina Bacteriophage 1 (Carin-1) by Cryo-EM
Alessio d’Acapito, Thomas Roret, Eleftherios Zarkadas, Pierre-Yves Mocaër, Florian Lelchat, Anne‐Claire Baudoux, Guy Schoehn, Emmanuelle Neumann
Abstract
Oceans play a central role in the carbon cycle on Earth and on the climate regulation (half of the planet's CO2 is absorbed by phytoplankton photosynthesis in the oceans and just as much O2 is liberated). The understanding of the biochemical equilibriums of marine biology represents a major goal for our future. By lysing half of the bacterial population every day, marine bacteriophages are key actors of these equilibriums. Despite their importance, these marine phages have, so far, only been studied a little and, in particular, structural insights are currently lacking, even though they are fundamental for the understanding of the molecular mechanisms of their mode of infection. The structures described in our manuscript allow us to propose an infection mechanism that differs from the one proposed for the terrestrial T7 virus, and might also allow us to, in the future, better understand the way bacteriophages shape the global ecosystem.