A New Sugar for an Old Phage: a c-di-GMP-Dependent Polysaccharide Pathway Sensitizes for Bacteriophage Infection.

Bacteriophages are ubiquitous parasites of bacteria and major drivers of bacterial ecology and evolution. Despite an ever-growing interest in their biotechnological and therapeutic applications, detailed knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying phage-host interactions remains scarce. Here, we show that bacteriophage N4 exploits a novel surface glycan (NGR) as a receptor to infect its host Escherichia coli.