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The moron comes of age

Prophage-encoded genes can provide a variety of benefits for their bacterial hosts. These beneficial genes are often contained within “moron” elements. Morons, thus termed as the insertion of the DNA encoding them adds “more on” the genome in which they are found, are independent transcriptional uni...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Cumby, Nichole, Davidson, Alan R., Maxwell, Karen L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Landes Bioscience 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3594210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23739268
http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/bact.23146
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author Cumby, Nichole
Davidson, Alan R.
Maxwell, Karen L.
author_facet Cumby, Nichole
Davidson, Alan R.
Maxwell, Karen L.
author_sort Cumby, Nichole
collection PubMed
description Prophage-encoded genes can provide a variety of benefits for their bacterial hosts. These beneficial genes are often contained within “moron” elements. Morons, thus termed as the insertion of the DNA encoding them adds “more on” the genome in which they are found, are independent transcriptional units disseminated among phage genomes through horizontal gene transfer. Morons have been identified in the majority of phage genomes and they have been found to play diverse roles in bacterial physiology. At present, we are only beginning to ascribe functions to the many proteins encoded within these ubiquitous genetic elements. Recently, we discovered that the first described moron-encoded protein, gp15 of phage HK97, is expressed from the HK97 prophage and functions as a superinfection exclusion protein, protecting its host from genome injection by other phages. This work and the growing body of data pertaining to other morons challenges the traditional view of phages as purely parasites of bacteria and emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and prophages.
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spelling pubmed-35942102013-03-26 The moron comes of age Cumby, Nichole Davidson, Alan R. Maxwell, Karen L. Bacteriophage Article Addendum Prophage-encoded genes can provide a variety of benefits for their bacterial hosts. These beneficial genes are often contained within “moron” elements. Morons, thus termed as the insertion of the DNA encoding them adds “more on” the genome in which they are found, are independent transcriptional units disseminated among phage genomes through horizontal gene transfer. Morons have been identified in the majority of phage genomes and they have been found to play diverse roles in bacterial physiology. At present, we are only beginning to ascribe functions to the many proteins encoded within these ubiquitous genetic elements. Recently, we discovered that the first described moron-encoded protein, gp15 of phage HK97, is expressed from the HK97 prophage and functions as a superinfection exclusion protein, protecting its host from genome injection by other phages. This work and the growing body of data pertaining to other morons challenges the traditional view of phages as purely parasites of bacteria and emphasizes the symbiotic relationship between bacteria and prophages. Landes Bioscience 2012-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3594210/ /pubmed/23739268 http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/bact.23146 Text en Copyright © 2013 Landes Bioscience http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an open-access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. The article may be redistributed, reproduced, and reused for non-commercial purposes, provided the original source is properly cited.
spellingShingle Article Addendum
Cumby, Nichole
Davidson, Alan R.
Maxwell, Karen L.
The moron comes of age
title The moron comes of age
title_full The moron comes of age
title_fullStr The moron comes of age
title_full_unstemmed The moron comes of age
title_short The moron comes of age
title_sort moron comes of age
topic Article Addendum
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3594210/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23739268
http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/bact.23146
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