Throughout the whole process of phage life cycle, interactions between bacteriophages and host proteins are essential for bacteriophages to set up an efficient selleck kinase inhibitor infection and to direct the biosynthesis machinery of the host cell toward the reproduction of phages [1–4]. As reported, host RNA polymerase can be a target of phage because most phages use

the host’s transcription system in their infection cycles and most interactions take place during the transcription step in the phage infection cycle [1, 2, learn more 4]. Nevertheless, functions of a number of phage open reading frames (ORFs) driven by strong early promoters remain unknown even in the well-studied bacteriophages T4 and λ [1, 4]. Up to date, the mechanisms of most phage–host interactions are still poorly understood [1]. Since thermophilic bacteriophages are more difficult to study, the host–phage interactions in high-temperature environments remain unclear [5]. Because thermophilic bacteria live in high-temperature environments,

a powerful machinery to protect against protein denaturation is needed [6]. The use of a molecular chaperone is a well-known strategy for the protection of bacterial proteins. GroEL, one of the most efficient chaperone systems, may be an essential protein for the interactions between thermophilic bacteria Tozasertib research buy and their bacteriophages [5]. GroEL usually has a tetradecameric “cage” structure with seven-fold symmetry that helps fold the nonnative proteins via an ATP-dependent mechanism [7, 8]. With the help of the co-chaperonin GroES and

ATP, the nonnative protein binds to the apical domain of GroEL and then is encapsulated within the “cage” chamber to finish folding [9, 10]. As documented, it was demonstrated that the GroEL can fulfill some essential roles in cells [11–13] and thus is essential for bacterial growth at all temperatures [14, 15]. In addition, the GroEL is concerned with the immune responses of host against bacteriophage invasion [7]. In this context, the GroEL system may be involved in the phage infection of the host. To date, there has been plenty of pioneering work on the GroEL system of Escherichia coli[7–10, 12–15]. However, the function of the GroEL Demeclocycline system in the interactions between thermophilic bacteriophages and their hosts remain to be addressed [16]. One of the powerful anti-stress strategies of thermophilic bacteria is the high activity and thermal stability of their enzymes, which can protect their metabolism in high-temperature environments [17]. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) is a key enzyme involved in the Krebs cycle, which catalyzes the formation of oxaloacetate. AST is also involved in the synthesis of other essential amino acids [18]. AST catalyzes the α-amino group reversible transfer between four- and five-carbon dicarboxylic amino acids and the α-keto-acids by a mechanism named “ping-pong bi-bi”, which is pyridoxal phosphate-dependent [19].