PRD1 is a Gram-negative bacteria infecting complex tailless icosahedral virus with an inner membrane. This type virus of the family Tectiviridae contains at least 18 structural protein species, of which several are membrane associated. Vertices of the PRD1 virion consist of complexes recognizing the host cell, except for one special vertex through which the genome is packaged. Despite extensive knowledge of the overall structure of the PRD1 virion and several individual proteins at the atomic level, the locations and interactions of various integral membrane proteins and membrane-associated proteins still remain a mystery. Here, we demonstrated that blue native PAGE can be used to probe protein-protein interactions in complex membrane-containing viruses. Using this technique and PRD1 as a model, we identified the known PRD1 multiprotein vertex structure composed of penton protein P31, spike protein P5, receptor-binding protein P2 and stabilizing protein P16 linking the vertex to the internal membrane. Our results also indicated that two transmembrane proteins, P7 and P14, involved in viral nucleic acid delivery, make a complex. In addition, we performed a zymogram analysis using mutant particles devoid of the special vertex that indicated that the lytic enzyme P15 of PRD1 was not part of the packaging vertex, thus contradicting previously published results.
INTRODUCTIONAmong the prokaryotic viruses infecting either archaea or bacteria, close to half of the described virus morphotypes contain lipid as a structural component (reviewed by Atanasova et al., 2015). Membrane-containing viruses are the most characteristic virus types among the eukaryoteinfecting viruses. One type of virus is the icosahedral internal membrane-containing morphotype. This type of virus is found infecting organisms of all domains of life, exemplified by bacteriophages PRD1, PM2 and P23-77 (Abrescia et al., 2004, 2008;Jaatinen et al., 2008), archaeal viruses SH1, Sulfolobus turreted icosahedral virus and Haloarcula hispanica icosahedral virus 2 (Jäälinoja et al., 2008;Jaakkola et al., 2012;Veesler et al., 2013), and Paramecium bursaria chlorella virus 1 and mimivirus of eukaryotes (Xiao et al., 2005;Zhang et al., 2011).Bacteriophage PRD1 is one of the best-known internal membrane-containing icosahedral viruses. It infects a variety of Gram-negative bacteria harbouring incompatibility P, N or W group plasmids (Olsen et al., 1974). PRD1 is the type member of the family Tectiviridae (for review, see Grahn et al., 2006;. The linear dsDNA genome of PRD1 (~15 kb) has inverted terminal repeats and covalently linked terminal proteins at the 59 ends (Bamford & Mindich, 1984;Bamford et al., 1983Savilahti & Bamford, 1986). The internal membrane consists of both protein and phospholipids iñ 1 : 1 mass ratio (Davis et al., 1982). Eighteen out of the 31 genes encode structural proteins either associated with the membrane (half of the protein species) or with the capsid shell (Fig. 1). The major capsid protein P3 (43 kDa) is a trimer organized on the ps...