PICI thieves: Molecular piracy and cooperation

Schmidt, Amelia K; Faith, Dominick R; Secor, Patrick R.

doi:10.1016/j.chom.2022.12.008

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 10 publications

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“…The fact that they always co-occur with distantly integrated elements such as Yong1 vOTU 10 ( att at 1.7 Mb) may indicate that all three are needed for maintenance of lysogeny and host survival. Another possibility is molecular piracy, in which one defective element cannot spread without the other helper element 57 – a hypothesis that is strongly supported by phage DNA sequencing results, indicating that sequences from two topologically distant prophage elements showing statistically significant co-occurrence within single chromosome (both related to Yong1) can indeed assemble into composite phage Interestingly, certain prophage elements that were abundant among wild isolates clustered together with well-described non-prophage regions of domesticated B. subtilis 168. For example, elements clustered with conjugative element ICEBs1 were found in 54 strains spanning local and global scale isolates.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecology of prophage-like elements inBacillus subtilisat global and local geographical scale

Stefanič,

Stare,

Floccari

et al. 2024

Preprint

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SummaryProphages account for a substantial part of most bacterial genomes, but the impacts on hosts remain poorly understood. Here, we combined computational and laboratory experiments to explore the abundance, distribution, and activity of prophage elements inBacillus subtilis. NCBI database genome sequences and isolates from 1 cm3riverbank soil samples were analyzed to provide insights at global and local geographical scales, respectively. Most prophages in wildB. subtilisisolates were related to mobile genetic elements previously identified in laboratory strains. Some large groups of prophages were closely related to completely uncharacterized yet functional Bacillus phages, or completely unknown. As certain prophage groups were unique to local isolates, we explored factors influencing prophages within a single genome. Phylogenetic relatedness was a slightly better predictor of host prophage repertoire than geographical origin. We show that cryptic phages can play a major role in acquisition and/or maintenance of other prophage elements both via strong antagonism or by co-dependence. Laboratory experiments showed that most predicted prophages may be cryptic, since they failed to induce under DNA-damaging stress conditions. Interestingly, the magnitude of stress responses remained proportional to the total number of prophage elements predicted, suggesting their importance in host physiology. This study highlights the diversity, integration patterns, and co-occurrence of prophages inB. subtilisand their potential impact on host evolution and physiology. Understanding these dynamics provides insight into bacterial genome evolution and prophage-host interactions, laying the groundwork for future experimental studies on the roles of phages in the ecology and evolution of this bacterial species.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%