Cargando…

Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli

We investigated the characteristics of a lambdoid prophage, nicknamed Lula, contaminating E. coli strains from several sources, that allowed it to spread horizontally in the laboratory environment. We found that new Lula infections are inconspicuous; at the same time, Lula lysogens carry unusually h...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Rotman, Ella, Amado, Luciana, Kuzminov, Andrei
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20559442
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011106
_version_ 1782182394980204544
author Rotman, Ella
Amado, Luciana
Kuzminov, Andrei
author_facet Rotman, Ella
Amado, Luciana
Kuzminov, Andrei
author_sort Rotman, Ella
collection PubMed
description We investigated the characteristics of a lambdoid prophage, nicknamed Lula, contaminating E. coli strains from several sources, that allowed it to spread horizontally in the laboratory environment. We found that new Lula infections are inconspicuous; at the same time, Lula lysogens carry unusually high titers of the phage in their cultures, making them extremely infectious. In addition, Lula prophage interferes with P1 phage development and induces its own lytic development in response to P1 infection, turning P1 transduction into an efficient vehicle of Lula spread. Thus, using Lula prophage as a model, we reveal the following principles of survival and reproduction in the laboratory environment: 1) stealth (via laboratory material commensality), 2) stability (via resistance to specific protocols), 3) infectivity (via covert yet aggressive productivity and laboratory protocol hitchhiking). Lula, which turned out to be identical to bacteriophage phi80, also provides an insight into a surprising persistence of T1-like contamination in BAC libraries.
format Text
id pubmed-2885432
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2010
publisher Public Library of Science
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-28854322010-06-17 Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli Rotman, Ella Amado, Luciana Kuzminov, Andrei PLoS One Research Article We investigated the characteristics of a lambdoid prophage, nicknamed Lula, contaminating E. coli strains from several sources, that allowed it to spread horizontally in the laboratory environment. We found that new Lula infections are inconspicuous; at the same time, Lula lysogens carry unusually high titers of the phage in their cultures, making them extremely infectious. In addition, Lula prophage interferes with P1 phage development and induces its own lytic development in response to P1 infection, turning P1 transduction into an efficient vehicle of Lula spread. Thus, using Lula prophage as a model, we reveal the following principles of survival and reproduction in the laboratory environment: 1) stealth (via laboratory material commensality), 2) stability (via resistance to specific protocols), 3) infectivity (via covert yet aggressive productivity and laboratory protocol hitchhiking). Lula, which turned out to be identical to bacteriophage phi80, also provides an insight into a surprising persistence of T1-like contamination in BAC libraries. Public Library of Science 2010-06-14 /pmc/articles/PMC2885432/ /pubmed/20559442 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011106 Text en Rotman 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
Rotman, Ella
Amado, Luciana
Kuzminov, Andrei
Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli
title Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli
title_full Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli
title_fullStr Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli
title_full_unstemmed Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli
title_short Unauthorized Horizontal Spread in the Laboratory Environment: The Tactics of Lula, a Temperate Lambdoid Bacteriophage of Escherichia coli
title_sort unauthorized horizontal spread in the laboratory environment: the tactics of lula, a temperate lambdoid bacteriophage of escherichia coli
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20559442
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011106
work_keys_str_mv AT rotmanella unauthorizedhorizontalspreadinthelaboratoryenvironmentthetacticsoflulaatemperatelambdoidbacteriophageofescherichiacoli
AT amadoluciana unauthorizedhorizontalspreadinthelaboratoryenvironmentthetacticsoflulaatemperatelambdoidbacteriophageofescherichiacoli
AT kuzminovandrei unauthorizedhorizontalspreadinthelaboratoryenvironmentthetacticsoflulaatemperatelambdoidbacteriophageofescherichiacoli