Tailspike protein from Shigella phage Sf6 specifically mediates the attachment to their hosts. Its structure revealed a conserved architecture with a central, right-handed beta-helix. The C-terminal domain adopts a beta-sandwich fold, is represented in this entry, and is reminiscent of viral capsid proteins [1,2].

1: An intersubunit active site between supercoiled parallel beta helices in the trimeric tailspike endorhamnosidase of Shigella flexneri Phage Sf6. Muller JJ, Barbirz S, Heinle K, Freiberg A, Seckler R, Heinemann U; Structure. 2008;16:766-775. PMID:18462681

2: Bacteriophage Tailspikes and Bacterial O-Antigens as a Model System to Study Weak-Affinity Protein-Polysaccharide Interactions. Kang Y, Gohlke U, Engstrom O, Hamark C, Scheidt T, Kunstmann S, Heinemann U, Widmalm G, Santer M, Barbirz S; J Am Chem Soc. 2016;138:9109-9118. PMID:27045683