This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Brown, D. T. Articles by Bayer, M. E. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Brown, D. T. Articles by Bayer, M. E.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

J Virol. 1971 June; 7(6): 836-846
Copyright © 1971 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Mode of Host Cell Penetration by Bacteriophage X174

Department of Cell Biology and Pharmacology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21201
The Institute for Cancer Research, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19111

ABSTRACT

Bacteriophage X174 is an icosahedral phage which attaches to host cells without the aid of a complex tail assembly. When X174 was mixed with cell walls isolated from the bacterial host, the virions attached to the wall fragments and the phage deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was released. Attachment was prevented if the cell walls were treated with chloroform. Release of phage DNA, but not viral attachment, was prevented if the cell walls were incubated with lysozyme or if the virions were inactivated with formaldehyde. Treatment of the cell walls with lysozyme released structures which were of uniform size (6.5 by 25 nm). These structures attached X174 at the tip of one of its 12 vertices, but the viral DNA was not released. The virions attached to these structures were oriented with their fivefold axis of symmetry normal to the long axis of the structure. No virions were attached to these structures by more than one vertex. Freeze-etch preparations of X174 adsorbed to intact bacteria showed that the virions were submerged to one half their diameter into the host cell wall, and the fivefold axis of symmetry was normal to the cell surface. A second cell could not be attached to the outwardly facing vertex of the adsorbed phage and thus the phage could not cross-link two cells. When the virions were labeled with ³H-leucine, purified, and adsorbed to Escherichia coli cells, about 15% of the radioactivity was recovered as low-molecular-weight material from spheroplasts formed by lysozyme-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. Other experiments revealed that about 7% of the total parental virus protein label could be recovered in newly formed progeny virus.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Crill, W. D., Wichman, H. A., Bull, J. J. (2000). Evolutionary Reversals During Viral Adaptation to Alternating Hosts. Genetics 154: 27-37 [Abstract] [Full Text]