Locating and Activating Molecular ‘Time Bombs’: Induction of Mycolata Prophages

Dyson, Zoe A.; Brown, Teagan L.; Farrar, Ben; Doyle, Stephen R.; Tucci, Joseph; Seviour, Robert J.; Petrovski, Steve

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0159957

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Despite an understanding of the activated sludge process and the viruses involved, little research into phage communities had been conducted prior to 2011 [94]. With the advent of next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) of isolated phages and metagenomics studies, this situation has improved [95,96,97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105,106]. It is now clear that the genomes of many bacteria present in activated sludge systems contain CRISPR-Cas regions, suggesting that these have in the past been infected by phage, and therefore their presence makes the problem of determining host/phage relationships in the absence of conventional ability to culture host cells, and consequently phage recovery [107].…”

Section: Bacteriophages In Artificial Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacteriophages in Natural and Artificial Environments

et al. 2019

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Bacteriophages (phages) are biological entities that have attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. They have been reported as the most abundant biological entities on the planet and their ability to impact the composition of bacterial communities is of great interest. In this review, we aim to explore where phages exist in natural and artificial environments and how they impact communities. The natural environment in this review will focus on the human body, soils, and the marine environment. In these naturally occurring environments there is an abundance of phages suggesting a role in the maintenance of bacterial community homeostasis. The artificial environment focuses on wastewater treatment plants, industrial processes, followed by pharmaceutical formulations. As in natural environments, the existence of bacteria in manmade wastewater treatment plants and industrial processes inevitably attracts phages. The presence of phages in these environments can inhibit the bacteria required for efficient water treatment or food production. Alternatively, they can have a positive impact by eliminating recalcitrant organisms. Finally, we conclude by describing how phages can be manipulated or formulated into pharmaceutical products in the laboratory for use in natural or artificial environments.

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Section: Bacteriophages In Artificial Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacteriophages in Natural and Artificial Environments

et al. 2019

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“…nucleoside triphosphate pyrophosphohydrolase and adenine methylase). Some ORFs were predicted as a transposase which is involved in phage DNA integration into the host genome while others were categorized as High frequency lysogenization C and Rha family proteins, which also serve a role in the regulation of lysogenic life cycle of phages, all of which suggest that phage Seahorse is indeed a temperate phage [36][37][38] . This annotation was further validated by a lysogeny experiment and a host cell lysis profile, both confirming that phage Seahorse has an ability to lysogenize the host (Fig.…”

Section: Genome Features and Annotation Of Phagementioning

confidence: 99%

A novel vibriophage exhibits inhibitory activity against host protein synthesis machinery

Thammatinna

Egan

Htoo

et al. 2020

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Since the emergence of deadly pathogens and multidrug-resistant bacteria at an alarmingly increased rate, bacteriophages have been developed as a controlling bioagent to prevent the spread of pathogenic bacteria. One of these pathogens, disease-causing Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp AHPND ) which induces acute hepatopancreatic necrosis, is considered one of the deadliest shrimp pathogens, and has recently become resistant to various classes of antibiotics. Here, we discovered a novel vibriophage that specifically targets the vibrio host, VP AHPND . The vibriophage, designated Seahorse, was classified in the family Siphoviridae because of its icosahedral capsid surrounded by head fibers and a non-contractile long tail. Phage Seahorse was able to infect the host in a broad range of pH and temperatures, and it had a relatively short latent period (nearly 30 minutes) in which it produced progeny at 72 particles per cell at the end of its lytic cycle. Upon phage infection, the host nucleoid condensed and became toroidal, similar to the bacterial DNA morphology seen during tetracycline treatment, suggesting that phage Seahorse hijacked host biosynthesis pathways through protein translation. As phage Seahorse genome encodes 48 open reading frames with many hypothetical proteins, this genome could be a potential untapped resource for the discovery of phage-derived therapeutic proteins.Vibrio is a genus of motile Gram-negative bacteria that possesses a curved-rod cell shape with a single flagellum. Vibrios are abundant and diverse bacteria that are typically found in marine habitats. The genus Vibrio consists of 14 recognized clades and at least 86 different species 1 . While some of them are not pathogenic, many can cause serious health effects in both human and aquatic life. Due to the continuously rising ocean temperature, the composition of vibrio in the ocean microbiome has been reported to be higher than usual 2-4 . This vibrio-rich environment might increase the incident of a vibrio outbreak in the near future posing risks to global health 2 .Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which is one of the disease-causing Vibrio species, is pathogenic to both humans and marine animals 5 . Consumption of raw seafoods contaminated with the bacteria can cause acute gastroenteritis 5,6 . This opportunistic bacterium is also able to infect through an open wound which can lead to sepsis and, in rare cases, subsequent death in immunocompromised patients 7,8 . Moreover, V. parahaemolyticus that has acquired a plasmid encoding the deadly binary toxins PirA vp /PirB vp is even more virulent 9 . The V. parahaemolyticus strain harboring the plasmid has been found to cause a newly emerging disease in shrimp, known as acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) 9 . Moreover, the AHPND-causing plasmid is also found to be transferable among other vibrios, increasing the chance of the disease spreading regionally and globally 10 . Unsurprisingly, the spread of AHPND has been reported in many countries, including China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Me...

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