Sokolova Laboratory

Bacteriophages are the most abundant organisms in the biosphere; they are present everywhere – from seabeds to mountain peaks.  While not being able to replicate themselves in the absence of bacterial cells, bacteriophages evolved numerous elegant strategies for efficient takeover of the host physiology and metabolism. As a result, they are not only interesting objects of basic research but serve as a rich source of new enzymes useful for biotechnological applications.  We investigate phages infecting thermophilic bacteria, enigmatic giant phage group and a recently discovered group of crAss-like phages, which includes the most abundant phages of the human gut. Particularly we are interested in understanding the transcriptional strategies used by these phages and characterization of their novel non-canonical RNA polymerases.

Our approaches include transcriptomic analysis, biochemical characterization of new enzymes and protein structure determination in collaboration with other laboratories.

Supervisor – Maria Sokolova

• A non-canonical multisubunit RNA polymerase encoded by the AR9 phage recognizes the template strand of its uracil-containing promoters. Sokolova M, Borukhov S, Lavysh D, Artamonova T, Khodorkovskii M, Severinov K. Nucleic Acids Res. 2017 Jun 2;45(10):5958-5967. doi: 10.1093/nar/gkx264.

• Transcription Profiling of Bacillus subtilis Cells Infected with AR9, a Giant Phage Encoding Two Multisubunit RNA Polymerases. Lavysh D, Sokolova M, Slashcheva M, Forstner KU, Severinov K.В MBio. 2017 Feb 14;8(1). pii: e02041-16. doi: 10.1128/mBio.02041-16.

• The genome of AR9, a giant transducing Bacillus phage encoding two multisubunit RNA polymerases. Lavysh D, Sokolova M, Minakhin L, Yakunina M, Artamonova T, Kozyavkin S, Makarova KS, Koonin EV, Severinov K. Virology.В 2016 May 26;495:185-196. doi: 10.1016/j.virol.2016.04.030.