REVIEW: Adsorption of Bacteriophages on Bacterial Cells

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A. V. Letarov^1,2* and E. E. Kulikov^1,3

¹Winogradskii Institute of Microbiology, Biotechnology Federal Research Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, 117312 Moscow, Russia; E-mail: letarov@gmail.com, eumenius@gmail.com

²Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Biology, 119991 Moscow, Russia

³Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Department of Molecular and Biological Physics, 141700 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received July 13, 2017; Revision received August 3, 2017

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The biological functions of bacteriophage virions come down to the solution of three basic problems: to provide protection of viral nucleic acid from the factors of extracellular environment, to recognize a host suitable for phage replication, and to provide the delivery of nucleic acid through bacterial cell envelopes. This review considers the main regularities of phage–cell interaction at the initial stages of infection of tailed bacteriophages, from the reversible binding with receptors on the surface to the beginning of phage DNA entry. Data on the structure and functions of the phage adsorption apparatus, the main quantitative characteristics of the adsorption process, and the mechanisms of adaptation of phages and their hosts to each other effective at the stage of adsorption are presented.

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KEY WORDS: bacteriophages, bacteriophage adsorption, bacteriophage adsorption kinetics, bacteriophage receptors, receptor-binding proteins, modulation of bacteriophage adsorption

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297917130053

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