Shuzhen Wei 1,2 , Anan Wang 3 , Lanlan Cai 4 , Ruijie Ma 2 , Longfei Lu 5 , Jiangtao Li 1 *，Rui Zhang 2 *
1 State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
2 Archaeal Biology Center, Synthetic Biology Research Center, ShenzhenKey Laboratory of Marine Microbiome Engineering, Key Laboratory of Marine Microbiome Engineering of Guangdong Higher Education Institutes, Institute for Advanced Study, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China.
3 State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Oceanand Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China.
4 Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Thrust, The Hong Kong University of Science andTechnology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, China.
5 Fourth Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Beihai, China.
*Corresponding author.
Email: jtli@tongji.edu.cn | ruizhang@szu.edu.cn
Abstract:
Marine bacteriophages, the most abundant biological entities in marine ecosystems, are essential in biogeochemical cycling. Despite extensive genomic data, many phage genes remain uncharacterised, creating a gap between genomic diversity and gene function knowledge. This gap limits our understanding of phage life cycles, assembly, and host interactions. In this study, we used mass spectrometry to profile the proteomes of 13 marine phages from diverse lifestyles and hosts. The analysis accurately annotated hypothetical genes, mapped virion protein arrangements, and revealed structural similarities among phages infecting the same host, particularly in tail fibre proteins. Protein structure comparisons showed conservation and variability in head and tail proteins, particularly in key domains involved in virion stabilisation and host recognition. For the first time, we identified post-translational modifications (PTMs) in marine phage proteins, which may enhance phage adaptability and help evade host immune systems. These findings suggest that phages optimise their infection strategies through structural variations and PTM modifications, improving their adaptability and host interactions.
Full article: https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.70099
Fig. Proteomic characterization and structural modeling of multiple marine phage species
