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Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host

Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect bacteria, are considered to be highly host-specific. To add to the knowledge about the evolution and development of bacteriophage speciation toward its host, we conducted a 21-day experiment with the broad host-range bacteriophage Aquamicrobium phage P14....

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Autores principales: de Leeuw, Marina, Baron, Maayan, Ben David, Oshrit, Kushmaro, Ariel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7599783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33036277
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12101132
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author de Leeuw, Marina
Baron, Maayan
Ben David, Oshrit
Kushmaro, Ariel
author_facet de Leeuw, Marina
Baron, Maayan
Ben David, Oshrit
Kushmaro, Ariel
author_sort de Leeuw, Marina
collection PubMed
description Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect bacteria, are considered to be highly host-specific. To add to the knowledge about the evolution and development of bacteriophage speciation toward its host, we conducted a 21-day experiment with the broad host-range bacteriophage Aquamicrobium phage P14. We incubated the phage, which was previously isolated and enriched with the Alphaproteobacteria Aquamicrobium H14, with the Betaproteobacteria Alcaligenaceae H5. During the experiment, we observed an increase in the phage’s predation efficacy towards Alcaligenaceae H5. Furthermore, genome analysis and the comparison of the bacteriophage’s whole genome indicated that rather than being scattered evenly along the genome, mutations occur in specific regions. In total, 67% of the mutations with a frequency higher than 30% were located in genes that encode tail proteins, which are essential for host recognition and attachment. As control, we incubated the phage with the Alphaproteobacteria Aquamicrobium H8. In both experiments, most of the mutations appeared in the gene encoding the tail fiber protein. However, mutations in the gene encoding the tail tubular protein B were only observed when the phage was incubated with Alcaligenaceae H5. This highlights the phage’s tail as a key player in its adaptation to different hosts. We conclude that mutations in the phage’s genome were mainly located in tail-related regions. Further investigation is needed to fully characterize the adaptation mechanisms of the Aquamicrobium phage P14.
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spelling pubmed-75997832020-11-01 Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host de Leeuw, Marina Baron, Maayan Ben David, Oshrit Kushmaro, Ariel Viruses Article Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect bacteria, are considered to be highly host-specific. To add to the knowledge about the evolution and development of bacteriophage speciation toward its host, we conducted a 21-day experiment with the broad host-range bacteriophage Aquamicrobium phage P14. We incubated the phage, which was previously isolated and enriched with the Alphaproteobacteria Aquamicrobium H14, with the Betaproteobacteria Alcaligenaceae H5. During the experiment, we observed an increase in the phage’s predation efficacy towards Alcaligenaceae H5. Furthermore, genome analysis and the comparison of the bacteriophage’s whole genome indicated that rather than being scattered evenly along the genome, mutations occur in specific regions. In total, 67% of the mutations with a frequency higher than 30% were located in genes that encode tail proteins, which are essential for host recognition and attachment. As control, we incubated the phage with the Alphaproteobacteria Aquamicrobium H8. In both experiments, most of the mutations appeared in the gene encoding the tail fiber protein. However, mutations in the gene encoding the tail tubular protein B were only observed when the phage was incubated with Alcaligenaceae H5. This highlights the phage’s tail as a key player in its adaptation to different hosts. We conclude that mutations in the phage’s genome were mainly located in tail-related regions. Further investigation is needed to fully characterize the adaptation mechanisms of the Aquamicrobium phage P14. MDPI 2020-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC7599783/ /pubmed/33036277 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12101132 Text en © 2020 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
de Leeuw, Marina
Baron, Maayan
Ben David, Oshrit
Kushmaro, Ariel
Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host
title Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host
title_full Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host
title_fullStr Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host
title_full_unstemmed Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host
title_short Molecular Insights into Bacteriophage Evolution toward Its Host
title_sort molecular insights into bacteriophage evolution toward its host
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7599783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33036277
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v12101132
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