Cryo-electron microscopy structure of the filamentous bacteriophage IKe

The filamentous bacteriophage IKe infects Escherichia coli cells bearing IncN pili. We report the cryo-electron microscopy structure of the micrometer-long IKe viral particle at a resolution of 3.4 Å. The major coat protein [protein 8 (p8)] consists of 47 residues that fold into a ∼68-Å-long helix. An atomic model of the coat protein was built. Five p8 helices in a horizontal layer form a pentamer, and symmetrically neighboring p8 layers form a...