Degradation of host lipopolysaccharides during virus entry (kw:KW-1237)

Some bacterial viruses carry an enzymatic activity to degrade the lipopolysaccharides (LPS) of Gram-negative bacteria. This activity is often associated with the tailspike proteins. LPS degradation may be utilized by the bacteriophage to clear a path through the bacterial LPS to gain access to the entry receptor on the cell surface. Interestingly, LPS degrading viruses can also use LPS as attachment receptor. In that case an alternative theory is that LPS degradation may act to release progeny phage particles from cellular debris at the end of a lytic cycle.

Virus	Family	Host bacteria	Surface component type	Phage degrading enzyme	Ref.
Phage HK620	Podoviridae	Escherichia coli H	LPS	Tail spike endo-N-acetylglucosaminidase
Phage P27	Unclassified	Salmonella typhimurium	LPS	Endorhamnosidase
Phage 9NA	Unclassified	Salmonella typhimurium	LPS	Endorhamnosidase
Phage KB-1	Unclassified	Salmonella typhimurium	LPS	Endorhamnosidase
Phage Det7	Myoviridae	Salmonella typhimurium	LPS	Endorhamnosidase
Phage P22	Podoviridae	Salmonella typhimurium	LPS	Endorhamnosidase
Phage Sf6	Podoviridae	Shigella flexneri	LPS	Endorhamnosidase
Phage & epsilon 15	Podoviridae		LPS	Endorhamnosidase