Viral evasion of a bacterial suicide system by RNA-based molecular mimicry enables infectious altruism.
PLoS Genet
; 8(10): e1003023, 2012.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-23109916
ABSTRACT
Abortive infection, during which an infected bacterial cell commits altruistic suicide to destroy the replicating bacteriophage and protect the clonal population, can be mediated by toxin-antitoxin systems such as the Type III protein-RNA toxin-antitoxin system, ToxIN. A flagellum-dependent bacteriophage of the Myoviridae, ΦTE, evolved rare mutants that "escaped" ToxIN-mediated abortive infection within Pectobacterium atrosepticum. Wild-type ΦTE encoded a short sequence similar to the repetitive nucleotide sequence of the RNA antitoxin, ToxI, from ToxIN. The ΦTE escape mutants had expanded the number of these "pseudo-ToxI" genetic repeats and, in one case, an escape phage had "hijacked" ToxI from the plasmid-borne toxIN locus, through recombination. Expression of the pseudo-ToxI repeats during ΦTE infection allowed the phage to replicate, unaffected by ToxIN, through RNA-based molecular mimicry. This is the first example of a non-coding RNA encoded by a phage that evolves by selective expansion and recombination to enable viral suppression of a defensive bacterial suicide system. Furthermore, the ΦTE escape phages had evolved enhanced capacity to transduce replicons expressing ToxIN, demonstrating virus-mediated horizontal transfer of genetic altruism.
Texto completo:
1
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Bacteriófagos
/
RNA Bacteriano
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Mimetismo Molecular
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Pectobacterium
Idioma:
En
Ano de publicação:
2012
Tipo de documento:
Article