Strategies for developing phages into novel antimicrobial tailocins

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

Tailocins are high-molecular-weight bacteriocins produced by bacteria to kill related environmental competitors by binding and puncturing their target. Tailocins are promising alternative antimicrobials, yet the diversity of naturally occurring tailocins is limited. The structural similarities between phage tails and tailocins advocate using phages as scaffolds for developing new tailocins. This article reviews three strategies for producing tailocins: disrupting the capsid–tail junction of phage particles, blocking capsid assembly during phage propagation, and creating headless phage particles synthetically. Particularly appealing is the production of tailocins through synthetic biology using phages with contractile tails as scaffolds to unlock the antimicrobial potential of tailocins.

Original languageEnglish
JournalTrends in Microbiology
ISSN0966-842X
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 2024

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s)

    Research areas

  • antimicrobial, bacteriophage, genetic engineering, headless phage, phage tail-like particle, tailocin

ID: 390191204