McMaster researchers link broader-spectrum Pseudomonas phages to tail-fibre structural diversity (PNAS)

McMaster University researchers report in PNAS that several broader-spectrum phages share particular forms of structural diversity in their tail fibres, and that the pattern held across the phages tested in Lori Burrows’ lab and dozens of similar phages in public databases. Analysis of genetic data from more than 1,300 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains found 53 distinct pili variants, concentrated on the part of the pili that phages interact with.