Dual pathogenicity island transfer by piggybacking lateral transduction
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Lateral transduction (LT) is the process by which temperate phages mobilize large sections of bacterial genomes. Despite its importance, LT has only been observed during prophage induction. Here, we report that superantigen-carrying staphylococcal pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) employ a related but more versatile and complex mechanism of gene transfer to drive chromosomal hypermobility while self-transferring with additional virulence genes from the host. We found that after phage infection or prophage induction, activated SaPIs form concatamers in the bacterial chromosome by switching between parallel genomic tracks in replication bubbles. This dynamic life cycle enables SaPIbov1 to piggyback its LT of staphylococcal pathogenicity island vSaα, which encodes an array of genes involved in host-pathogen interactions, allowing both islands to be mobilized intact and transferred in a single infective particle. Our findings highlight previously unknown roles of pathogenicity islands in bacterial virulence and show that their evolutionary impact extends beyond the genes they carry.
Date Issued
2023-08-03
Date Acceptance
2023-07-03
Citation
Cell, 2023, 186 (16), pp.3414-3426.e16
ISSN
0092-8674
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
3414
End Page
3426.e16
Journal / Book Title
Cell
Volume
186
Issue
16
Copyright Statement
Copyright © Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37541198
PII: S0092-8674(23)00734-1
Subjects
Genome, Bacterial
Genomic Islands
Staphylococcus
Staphylococcus Phages
Transduction, Genetic
Virulence
concatamers
cotransduction
lateral transduction
pathogenicity islands
phages
PICIs
SaPIs
Staphylococcus aureus
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
United States
Date Publish Online
2023-08-03