Staphylococcal phages and pathogenicity islands drive plasmid evolution
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Conjugation has classically been considered the main mechanism driving plasmid transfer in nature. Yet bacteria frequently carry so-called non-transmissible plasmids, raising questions about how these plasmids spread. Interestingly, the size of many mobilizable and non transmissible plasmids coincides with the average size of phages (~40kb) or that of a family of pathogenicity islands, the phage-inducible chromosomal islands (PICIs, ~11 kb). Here, we show that phages and PICIs from Staphylococcus aureus can mediate intra- and inter-species plasmid transfer via generalised transduction, potentially contributing to non-transmissible plasmid spread in nature. Further, staphylococcal PICIs enhance plasmid packaging efficiency, and phages and PICIs exert selective pressures on plasmids via the physical capacity of their capsids, explaining the bimodal size distribution observed for non-conjugative plasmids. Our results highlight that transducing agents (phages, PICIs) have important roles in bacterial plasmid evolution and, potentially, in antimicrobial resistance transmission.
Date Issued
2021-10-06
Date Acceptance
2021-09-07
Citation
Nature Communications, 2021, 12 (5845), pp.1-15
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
1
End Page
15
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
12
Issue
5845
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Sponsor
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Medical Research Council (MRC)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Identifier
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26101-5
Grant Number
BB/V002376/1
MR/V000772/1
MR/S00940X/2
BB/V009583/1
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2021-10-06