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Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus

The prophage is one of the most important components of variable regions in bacterial genomes. Some prophages carry additional genes that may enhance the toxicity and survival ability of their host bacteria. This phenomenon is predominant in Staphylococcus aureus, a very common human pathogen. Bioin...

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Autores principales: Tao, Liang, Wu, Xiaoqian, Sun, Baolin
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2869324/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20485515
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000888
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author Tao, Liang
Wu, Xiaoqian
Sun, Baolin
author_facet Tao, Liang
Wu, Xiaoqian
Sun, Baolin
author_sort Tao, Liang
collection PubMed
description The prophage is one of the most important components of variable regions in bacterial genomes. Some prophages carry additional genes that may enhance the toxicity and survival ability of their host bacteria. This phenomenon is predominant in Staphylococcus aureus, a very common human pathogen. Bioinformatics analysis of several staphylococcal prophages revealed a highly conserved 40-bp untranslated region upstream of the int gene. A small transcript encoding phage integrase was identified to be initiated from the region, demonstrating that the untranslated region contained a promoter for int. No typical recognition sequence for either σ(A) or σ(B) was identified in the 40-bp region. Experiments both in vitro and in vivo demonstrated that σ(H) recognized the promoter and directed transcription. Genetic deletion of sigH altered the int expression, and subsequently, the excision proportion of prophage DNAs. Phage assays further showed that sigH affected the ability of spontaneous lysis and lysogenization in S. aureus, suggesting that sigH plays a role in stabilizing the lysogenic state. These findings revealed a novel mechanism of prophage integration specifically regulated by a host-source alternative sigma factor. This mechanism suggests a co-evolution strategy of staphylococcal prophages and their host bacteria.
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spelling pubmed-28693242010-05-19 Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus Tao, Liang Wu, Xiaoqian Sun, Baolin PLoS Pathog Research Article The prophage is one of the most important components of variable regions in bacterial genomes. Some prophages carry additional genes that may enhance the toxicity and survival ability of their host bacteria. This phenomenon is predominant in Staphylococcus aureus, a very common human pathogen. Bioinformatics analysis of several staphylococcal prophages revealed a highly conserved 40-bp untranslated region upstream of the int gene. A small transcript encoding phage integrase was identified to be initiated from the region, demonstrating that the untranslated region contained a promoter for int. No typical recognition sequence for either σ(A) or σ(B) was identified in the 40-bp region. Experiments both in vitro and in vivo demonstrated that σ(H) recognized the promoter and directed transcription. Genetic deletion of sigH altered the int expression, and subsequently, the excision proportion of prophage DNAs. Phage assays further showed that sigH affected the ability of spontaneous lysis and lysogenization in S. aureus, suggesting that sigH plays a role in stabilizing the lysogenic state. These findings revealed a novel mechanism of prophage integration specifically regulated by a host-source alternative sigma factor. This mechanism suggests a co-evolution strategy of staphylococcal prophages and their host bacteria. Public Library of Science 2010-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC2869324/ /pubmed/20485515 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000888 Text en Tao et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Tao, Liang
Wu, Xiaoqian
Sun, Baolin
Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus
title Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus
title_full Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus
title_fullStr Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus
title_full_unstemmed Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus
title_short Alternative Sigma Factor σ(H) Modulates Prophage Integration and Excision in Staphylococcus aureus
title_sort alternative sigma factor σ(h) modulates prophage integration and excision in staphylococcus aureus
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2869324/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20485515
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1000888
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