Wall teichoic acid structure governs horizontal gene transfer between major bacterial pathogens
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) encoding virulence and resistance genes are widespread in bacterial pathogens, but it has remained unclear how they occasionally jump to new host species. Staphylococcus aureus clones exchange MGEs such as S. aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) with high frequency via helper phages. Here we report that the S. aureus ST395 lineage is refractory to horizontal gene transfer (HGT) with typical S. aureus but exchanges SaPIs with other species and genera including Staphylococcus epidermidis and Listeria monocytogenes. ST395 produces an unusual wall teichoic acid (WTA) resembling that of its HGT partner species. Notably, distantly related bacterial species and genera undergo efficient HGT with typical S. aureus upon ectopic expression of S. aureus WTA. Combined with genomic analyses, these results indicate that a ‘glycocode’ of WTA structures and WTA-binding helper phages permits HGT even across long phylogenetic distances thereby shaping the evolution of Gram-positive pathogens.
Date Issued
2013-08-01
Date Acceptance
2013-07-22
Citation
Nature Communications, 2013, 4
ISSN
2041-1723
Publisher
Nature Research (part of Springer Nature)
Journal / Book Title
Nature Communications
Volume
4
Copyright Statement
© 2013Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy ofthis license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000323753200006&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Science & Technology - Other Topics
STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS
RESISTANCE
ISLAND
STRAIN
HOST
IDENTIFICATION
GLYCOSYLATION
PARTICLES
EVOLUTION
VIRULENCE
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN 2345