The unique two-component tail sheath of giant Pseudomonas phage PaBG

Myoviridae bacteriophages have a special contractile tail machine that facilitates high viral infection efficiency. The major component of this machine is a tail sheath that contracts during infection, allowing delivery of viral DNA into the host cell. Tail sheaths of Myoviridae phages are composed of multiple copies of individual proteins. The giant Pseudomonas aeruginosa phage PaBG is notable in its possession of two tail sheath proteins. These tail sheath proteins are encoded by orf 76 and 204, which were cloned and expressed individually and together in Escherichia coli. We demonstrate that only co-expression of both genes results in efficient assembly of thermostable and proteolytically resistant polysheaths composed of gp76 and gp204 with approximately 1:1 stoichiometry. Both gp76 and gp204 have been identified as structural components of the virion particle. We conclude that during PaBG morphogenesis in vivo two proteins, gp76 and gp204, assemble the tail sheath.