A huge thank you to first author Ma Long for his tireless work and perseverance in leading this innovative study. We started this work way back in the day, in Germany, in 2011! Working with a complex transmembrane protein, sometimes called Zot, was always a pain. Ma Long worked so hard for the data that we have now published as a preprint.
”From motor protein to toxin: Mutations in the zonula occludens toxin (Zot) of Vibrio cholerae phage CTXϕ suggest a loss of phage assembly function” is currently under review in Nature Communications. The study explores the evolutionary changes in the Zot protein of Vibrio cholerae phage CTXϕ which resulted in a loss of phage assembly function which adopting a role as an auxiliary toxin during Cholera infection.
The Leptihn Lab 