%0 Journal Article %J Viruses %D 2020 %T The Phage-Encoded -Acetyltransferase Rac Mediates Inactivation of Transcription by Cleavage of the RNA Polymerase Alpha Subunit. %A Pieter-Jan Ceyssens %A De Smet, Jeroen %A Jeroen Wagemans %A Natalia Akulenko %A Evgeny Klimuk %A Subray Hedge %A Voet, Marleen %A Hendrix, Hanne %A Paeshuyse, Jan %A Bart Landuyt %A Xu, Hua %A John Blanchard %A Konstantin Severinov %A Lavigne, Rob %K acetylomics %K bacterial shutdown %K Bacteriophage %X

In this study, we describe the biological function of the phage-encoded protein RNA polymerase alpha subunit cleavage protein (Rac), a predicted Gcn5-related acetyltransferase encoded by phiKMV-like viruses. These phages encode a single-subunit RNA polymerase for transcription of their late (structure- and lysis-associated) genes, whereas the bacterial RNA polymerase is used at the earlier stages of infection. Rac mediates the inactivation of bacterial transcription by introducing a specific cleavage in the α subunit of the bacterial RNA polymerase. This cleavage occurs within the flexible linker sequence and disconnects the C-terminal domain, required for transcription initiation from most highly active cellular promoters. To achieve this, Rac likely taps into a novel post-translational modification (PTM) mechanism within the host . From an evolutionary perspective, this novel phage-encoded regulation mechanism confirms the importance of PTMs in the prokaryotic metabolism and represents a new way by which phages can hijack the bacterial host metabolism.

%B Viruses %V 12 %8 2020 09 02 %G eng %N 9 %R 10.3390/v12090976