Cryo-electron microscopy structure of Jabs, a bacteriophage infecting the multidrug-resistant pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus
- 1CNRS
Abstract
Exploring bacteriophage structural diversity is essential for understanding phage biology and for advancing phage-based therapies. Here, we determine the cryo-electron microscopy structure of Jabs, providing, to our knowledge, the first high-resolution view of a phage infecting the multidrug-resistant human pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus. Although Jabs displays the canonical organization of a siphophage, its virion combines several unusual architectural features. The T=9 icosahedral capsid is assembled from two distinct major capsid proteins, with one forming the hexons and the other the pentons, revealing an unprecedented capsid assembly strategy among icosahedral phages. An extensive network of ~1,700 disulfide bonds stabilize individual structural components and covalently links the capsid, connector, tail, and adhesion device into a continuous assembly. At the distal end of the tail, an elaborate and conformationally dynamic adhesion device comprises multiple candidate receptor-binding proteins organized into complex multidomain architectures, including carbohydrate-binding modules and {beta}-sandwich hetero- and homotrimers resembling the receptor-binding proteins of phages infecting lactic acid bacteria. Together, these findings expand our understanding of phage structural diversity and provide a framework for investigating phage-host interactions and guiding the engineering of therapeutic phages.
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BibTeX
@misc{cambillau2026cryoelectron,
title = {{Cryo-electron microscopy structure of Jabs, a bacteriophage infecting the multidrug-resistant pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus}},
author = {C. Cambillau and J. H. Liew and B. S. Y. Tan and L. Kremer and P. Bifani and A. Goulet},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.64898/2026.07.24.740622},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.24.740622v2},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Cryo-electron microscopy structure of Jabs, a bacteriophage infecting the multidrug-resistant pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus
AU - C. Cambillau
AU - J. H. Liew
AU - B. S. Y. Tan
AU - L. Kremer
AU - P. Bifani
AU - A. Goulet
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/20
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.07.24.740622
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.24.740622v2
AB - Exploring bacteriophage structural diversity is essential for understanding phage biology and for advancing phage-based therapies. Here, we determine the cryo-electron microscopy structure of Jabs, providing, to our knowledge, the first high-resolution view of a phage infecting the multidrug-resistant human pathogen Mycobacterium abscessus. Although Jabs displays the canonical organization of a siphophage, its virion combines several unusual architectural features. The T=9 icosahedral capsid is assembled from two distinct major capsid proteins, with one forming the hexons and the other the pentons, revealing an unprecedented capsid assembly strategy among icosahedral phages. An extensive network of ~1,700 disulfide bonds stabilize individual structural components and covalently links the capsid, connector, tail, and adhesion device into a continuous assembly. At the distal end of the tail, an elaborate and conformationally dynamic adhesion device comprises multiple candidate receptor-binding proteins organized into complex multidomain architectures, including carbohydrate-binding modules and {beta}-sandwich hetero- and homotrimers resembling the receptor-binding proteins of phages infecting lactic acid bacteria. Together, these findings expand our understanding of phage structural diversity and provide a framework for investigating phage-host interactions and guiding the engineering of therapeutic phages.
ER -