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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Phage Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1533694
This article is part of the Research Topic Bacteriophages, Prophages, and Their Products: Regulating Bacterial Populations View all 11 articles
Bacteriophage P1 protein Icd inhibits bacterial division by targeting FtsZ
Provisionally accepted
Kairui Zhao 
Shuheng Du 
Linlin Tian Shenping Wang 
Shi Runqing Haiyu Sun Yao Zhou Chenhao Huang Yanmei Sun 
Shiwei Wang 
Yaodong Chen *- Northwest University, Xi'an, China
The study of bacteriophage (phage) gene products and their effects on the host helps to better understand the phage-host relationship and provides clues for the development of new antimicrobial proteins. In this study, we focused on a small protein named Icd with 73 amino acids from phage P1. It inhibits the growth of Escherichia coli and rapidly blocks the formation of Z-ring. The results of bacterial two-hybrid and pull-down experiments showed that Icd directly targets FtsZ, a key protein in bacterial division. Furthermore, we identified the core region of Icd as amino acids 12 to 51; this 40-amino acid protein had similar antibacterial activity to the full-length Icd, inhibiting bacterial growth and division.
Keywords: Bacteriophage P1, ICD, bacterial cell division, ftsZ, Phage-host
Received: 24 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhao, Du, Tian, Wang, Runqing, Sun, Zhou, Huang, Sun, Wang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yaodong Chen, Northwest University, Xi'an, China
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