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Updated: Oct 30, 2025
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Phage Phenomics: Physiological Approaches to Characterize Novel Viral Proteins
Published on: June 11, 2015
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PhaLP: A Database for the Study of Phage Lytic Proteins and Their Evolution
Bjorn Criel1,2, Steff Taelman2,3, Wim Van Criekinge2
1Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Viruses
|July 2, 2021
Summary
Researchers developed PhaLP, a comprehensive database for phage lytic proteins, aiding enzybiotic development. Analysis reveals host-specific evolution patterns in these novel enzyme-based antibiotics.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Biotechnology
- Bioinformatics
Background:
- Phage lytic proteins, also known as enzybiotics, are advanced enzyme-based antibiotics with significant therapeutic potential.
- Successful development and market translation of enzybiotics depend on informed selection of phage lytic proteins in early research phases.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce PhaLP, a comprehensive and accessible database designed to facilitate the research and development of phage lytic proteins.
- To analyze the diversity and host-specific evolution of natural phage lytic proteins.
Main Methods:
- Creation of PhaLP, an automatically updated database containing 16,095 entries of phage lytic proteins.
- Mapping the diversity of phage lytic proteins through analyses at modular, domain architecture, and protein sequence levels.
- Application of datamining and interpretable machine learning to identify host-specific design rules for endolysin domain architectures.
Main Results:
- PhaLP provides a rich resource for studying phage lytic proteins, revealing high natural diversity.
- Host-specific evolutionary patterns were identified across different analysis levels, including domain architectures and protein sequences.
- Specific clusters related to host specificity were observed at the protein sequence level.
Conclusions:
- PhaLP serves as a crucial starting point for enzybiotic researchers.
- The database and ongoing evolutionary insights will inspire protein engineers in developing novel enzybiotics.
- Understanding host-specific evolution is key to optimizing phage lytic proteins for therapeutic applications.
Keywords:
biological databaseconserved protein domainsendolysinsmachine learningphage lytic proteinsprotein architecturesMore Related Videos
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