Fig. 3: Interaction between MDA phage and type IV pili.
a Predicted structures of PilC1 and PilC2 were obtained using Alphafold-3. The deleted parts of PilC1 were shown as a thin line in red. Phenotypes of transduction (b) and transformation (c) for the strain Z5463 expressing the PilESD variant (pilESD) and its derivative double mutant ∆pilC1/C2 complemented or not with the whole pilC1 or pilC2 genes or pilC1 deletion mutants of decreasing size. Transduction results (b) were expressed as transduction rate (arb. units: arbitrary unit) and transformation results (c) were expressed as percentages of that of the strain expressing the PilESD variant. Each experiment was performed three times (n = 3) in duplicate. Statistical analyses were performed using an ordinary ANOVA test with Dunnett correction for transduction rates, a Kruskal–Wallis test with Dunn’s correction for transformation frequencies, and data were expressed as mean ± SEM. White-centered dots correspond to CFU below the detection limit. The dotted line on bar plot c corresponds to the mean threshold for the appearance of spontaneous nalidixic acid resistant clones. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
