Molecular Modeling the Proteins from the Region of Lambda and Shigatoxigenic Bacteriophages.

Despite decades of intensive research on bacteriophage lambda, a relatively uncharacterized region remains between the and genes. Collectively, region genes are expressed during the earliest stages of the lytic developmental cycle and are capable of affecting the molecular events associated with the lysogenic-lytic developmental decision. In Shiga toxin-producing (STEC) and enterohemorragic (EHEC) that are responsible for food- and water-borne outbreaks throughout the world, there are distinct differences of region genes from their counterparts in lambda phage. Together, these differences may help EHEC-specific phage and their bacterial hosts adapt to the complex environment within the human intestine. Only one region protein, Ea8.5, has been solved to date. Here, I have used the AlphaFold and RoseTTAFold machine learning algorithms to predict the structures of six region proteins from lambda and STEC/EHEC phages. Together, the models suggest possible roles for region proteins in transcription and the regulation of RNA polymerase.