Grant: Project Grant

Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that infect and kill bacterial strains with a high degree of specificity. Ninety five percent of phages on earth utilize a structure known as a tail to bind to the surface of bacteria for the initiation of infection. Tails impart host specificity to phages by binding proteins or sugars on the cell surface, which are the most variable components of bacteria. This proposal is focused on studying and engineering bacterial-killing nanomachines, called tailocins, which are derived from phage tails. Tailocins are naturally produced by bacteria to use as weapons to kill other bacteria sharing the same environment. They look and act like small harpoons, with the bacterial host specificity encoded at one end. When a tailocin encounters a susceptible bacterial cell, it binds to the surface, pokes a hole in the membrane, and kills the cell. The goal of our research is to understand how tailocins kill bacterial cells and develop robust methods to tailor their killing specificity. In the long term, these studies are aimed at producing agents that may be used as novel alternatives to antibiotics or for precise manipulation of the human microbiome.