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Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection

Synechococcus is an abundant marine cyanobacterium that significantly contributes to primary production. Lytic phages are thought to have a major impact on cyanobacterial population dynamics and evolution. Previously, an investigation of the transcriptional response of three Synechococcus strains to...

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Autores principales: Fedida, Ayalla, Lindell, Debbie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5490813/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28574452
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v9060136
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author Fedida, Ayalla
Lindell, Debbie
author_facet Fedida, Ayalla
Lindell, Debbie
author_sort Fedida, Ayalla
collection PubMed
description Synechococcus is an abundant marine cyanobacterium that significantly contributes to primary production. Lytic phages are thought to have a major impact on cyanobacterial population dynamics and evolution. Previously, an investigation of the transcriptional response of three Synechococcus strains to infection by the T4-like cyanomyovirus, Syn9, revealed that while the transcript levels of the vast majority of host genes declined soon after infection, those for some genes increased or remained stable. In order to assess the role of two such host-response genes during infection, we inactivated them in Synechococcus sp. strain WH8102. One gene, SYNW1659, encodes a domain of unknown function (DUF3387) that is associated with restriction enzymes. The second gene, SYNW1946, encodes a PIN-PhoH protein, of which the PIN domain is common in bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems. Neither of the inactivation mutations impacted host growth or the length of the Syn9 lytic cycle. However, the DUF3387 mutant supported significantly lower phage DNA replication and yield of phage progeny than the wild-type, suggesting that the product of this host gene aids phage production. The PIN-PhoH mutant, on the other hand, allowed for significantly higher Syn9 genomic DNA replication and progeny production, suggesting that this host gene plays a role in restraining the infection process. Our findings indicate that host-response genes play a functional role during infection and suggest that some function in an attempt at defense against the phage, while others are exploited by the phage for improved infection.
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spelling pubmed-54908132017-06-30 Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection Fedida, Ayalla Lindell, Debbie Viruses Article Synechococcus is an abundant marine cyanobacterium that significantly contributes to primary production. Lytic phages are thought to have a major impact on cyanobacterial population dynamics and evolution. Previously, an investigation of the transcriptional response of three Synechococcus strains to infection by the T4-like cyanomyovirus, Syn9, revealed that while the transcript levels of the vast majority of host genes declined soon after infection, those for some genes increased or remained stable. In order to assess the role of two such host-response genes during infection, we inactivated them in Synechococcus sp. strain WH8102. One gene, SYNW1659, encodes a domain of unknown function (DUF3387) that is associated with restriction enzymes. The second gene, SYNW1946, encodes a PIN-PhoH protein, of which the PIN domain is common in bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems. Neither of the inactivation mutations impacted host growth or the length of the Syn9 lytic cycle. However, the DUF3387 mutant supported significantly lower phage DNA replication and yield of phage progeny than the wild-type, suggesting that the product of this host gene aids phage production. The PIN-PhoH mutant, on the other hand, allowed for significantly higher Syn9 genomic DNA replication and progeny production, suggesting that this host gene plays a role in restraining the infection process. Our findings indicate that host-response genes play a functional role during infection and suggest that some function in an attempt at defense against the phage, while others are exploited by the phage for improved infection. MDPI 2017-06-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5490813/ /pubmed/28574452 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v9060136 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Fedida, Ayalla
Lindell, Debbie
Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection
title Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection
title_full Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection
title_fullStr Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection
title_full_unstemmed Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection
title_short Two Synechococcus genes, Two Different Effects on Cyanophage Infection
title_sort two synechococcus genes, two different effects on cyanophage infection
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5490813/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28574452
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v9060136
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