{"doi":"10.1101/2023.06.22.546067","title":"Widespread gene regulator Psu inhibits transcription termination factor ρ by forced hyper-oligomerization","abstract":"Abstract Many bacteriophages modulate the host transcription machinery for efficient expression of their own genomes. Phage P4 polarity suppression protein, Psu, is a building block of the viral capsid and inhibits the hexameric transcription termination factor, ρ, by presently unknown mechanisms. We elucidated cryogenic electron microscopy structures of ρ-Psu complexes, showing that Psu dimers laterally clamp two inactive, open ρ rings and promote their expansion to higher-oligomeric states. Systematic ATPase, nucleotide binding and nucleic acid binding studies revealed that Psu hinders ρ ring closure and traps nucleotides in their binding pockets on ρ. Structure-guided mutagenesis in combination with growth, pull-down and termination assays further delineated the functional ρ-Psu interfaces. Bioinformatic analyses suggested that, in addition to guarding its own genome against ρ, Psu enables expression of diverse phage-defense systems commonly found in P4-like mobile genetic elements across bacteria. Thus, Psu is a widespread gene regulator that inhibits ρ via forced hyper-oligomerization.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2023,"id":396752,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9553,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1172158,"name":"Naveen Kumar","orcid":"0000-0001-8126-3133","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":514554,"name":"Bing Wang","orcid":"0000-0003-1265-9526","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270920,"name":"Tarek Hilal","orcid":"0000-0002-7833-8058","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270919,"name":"Nelly Said","orcid":"0000-0001-8352-5555","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270925,"name":"Bernhard Loll","orcid":"0000-0001-7928-4488","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270927,"name":"Irina Artsimovitch","orcid":"0000-0002-8604-0980","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270926,"name":"Ranjan Sen","orcid":"0000-0001-5693-787X","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":270928,"name":"M.C. Wahl","orcid":"0000-0002-2811-5307","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":969260,"name":"Daniela Gjorgjevikj","orcid":"0000-0002-9581-8440","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":104,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:19:31.472087Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}