{"doi":"10.1126/sciadv.adw7914","title":"Structural basis of bacteriophage Ur-lambda infection initiation","abstract":"Bacteriophages must recognize host receptors and penetrate the host cell envelope to initiate infection. How the classic phage λ initiates infection is not yet understood. Here, we combine cryo–electron microscopy and tomography to visualize infection initiation by Ur-λ, the original λ isolate that uses side fibers to adsorb rapidly to Escherichia coli . We determine the structure of Ur-λ, resolving the full-length central and side fibers, thus providing a structural basis for host recognition. We show that Ur-λ contains six copies of its tape measure protein. We capture intermediates of the tail tip complex during infection initiation, revealing how extensive conformational changes enable adsorption, and visualize the trans-envelope channel required for genome ejection.","journal":"Science Advances","year":2025,"id":514607,"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":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9544,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":623125,"name":"Chunyan Wang","orcid":"0000-0002-4584-259X","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1033188,"name":"Jian Yue","orcid":"0000-0002-0815-0092","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342854,"name":"Wangbiao Guo","orcid":"0000-0001-5398-4910","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1247947,"name":"Ian J. Molineux","orcid":"0000-0003-0184-7652","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":278679,"name":"Jun Liu","orcid":"0000-0003-3108-6735","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1377315,"name":"Huaxin Yu","orcid":"0000-0002-9375-1916","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":70,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:48:29.165853Z","pmid":"41237242","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":[]}