Structural signatures of salinity adaptation in Microviricetes capsids

Ocean Microviricetes major capsid proteins (MCPs) from metagenomic lake–ocean biomes are enriched in negatively charged residues on internal and external capsid surfaces.

• Why it matters: Phages span diverse environments, but the specific amino acid changes that enable environmental adaptation are still unclear, limiting predictions of capsid stability under stress.
• What they did: A structure-based multiple sequence alignment plus a random forest classifier and a phylogeny-aware regression model were applied to 1,110 MCPs from public metagenomic data.
• The result: The ocean-linked substitutions also show interface enrichment for cation-{pi} and {pi}-{pi} interactions and a lake-to-ocean substitution pattern, supporting a framework to study protein-family adaptation and stability across conditions.

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