Hijacking the Hijackers: Escherichia coli Pathogenicity Islands Redirect Helper Phage Packaging for Their Own Benefit

Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) are phage satellites that exploit the life cycle of their helper phages for their own benefit. Most SaPIs are packaged by their helper phages using a headful ( pac ) packaging mechanism. These SaPIs interfere with pac phage reproduction through a variety of strategies, including the redirection of phage capsid assembly to form small capsids, a process that depends on the expression of the SaPI-encoded cpm A and cpm B genes. Another SaPI subfamily is induced and packaged by cos -type phages, and although these cos SaPIs also block the life cycle of their inducing phages, the basis for this mechanism of interference remains to be deciphered. Here we have identified and characterized one mechanism by which the SaPIs interfere with cos phage reproduction. This mechanism depends on a SaPI-encoded gene, ccm , which encodes a protein involved in the production of small isometric capsids, compared with the prolate helper phage capsids. As the Ccm and CpmAB proteins are completely unrelated in sequence, this strategy represents a fascinating example of convergent evolution. Moreover, this result also indicates that the production of SaPI-sized particles is a widespread strategy of phage interference conserved during SaPI evolution. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The new bacteriology’.

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tRNA genes and pathogenicity islands: influence on virulence and metabolic properties of uropathogenic Escherichia coli

Molecular Microbiology ◽

10.1111/j.1365-2958.1995.mmi_17010109.x ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 109-121 ◽

Cited By ~ 75

Author(s):

Angelika Ritter ◽

Gabriele Blum ◽

Levente Emödy ◽

Monika Kerenyi ◽

August Böck ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Escherichia Coli ◽

Uropathogenic Escherichia Coli ◽

Pathogenicity Islands ◽

Trna Genes ◽

Metabolic Properties

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Excision of the Shigella Resistance Locus Pathogenicity Island in Shigella flexneri Is Stimulated by a Member of a New Subgroup of Recombination Directionality Factors

Journal of Bacteriology ◽

10.1128/jb.186.16.5551-5554.2004 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 186 (16) ◽

pp. 5551-5554 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Shelley N. Luck ◽

Sally A. Turner ◽

Kumar Rajakumar ◽

Ben Adler ◽

Harry Sakellaris

Keyword(s):

Escherichia Coli ◽

Sequence Analysis ◽

Yersinia Pestis ◽

Shigella Flexneri ◽

Pathogenicity Island ◽

Pathogenicity Islands ◽

Resistance Locus ◽

Bacterial Chromosomes

ABSTRACT Pathogenicity islands are capable of excision and insertion within bacterial chromosomes. We describe a protein, Rox, that stimulates excision of the Shigella resistance locus pathogenicity island in Shigella flexneri. Sequence analysis suggests that Rox belongs to a new subfamily of recombination directionality factors, which includes proteins from P4, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, and Yersinia pestis.

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Investigation of horizontal gene transfer of pathogenicity islands in Escherichia coli using next-generation sequencing

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0179880 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 12 (7) ◽

pp. e0179880 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Maxim Messerer ◽

Wolfgang Fischer ◽

Sören Schubert

Keyword(s):

Escherichia Coli ◽

Next Generation Sequencing ◽

Gene Transfer ◽

Horizontal Gene Transfer ◽

Pathogenicity Islands ◽

Next Generation ◽

Generation Sequencing

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Presence of virulence genes and pathogenicity islands in extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli isolates from Brazil

The Journal of Infection in Developing Countries ◽

10.3855/jidc.6683 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 9 (10) ◽

pp. 1068-1075 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Paula Signolfi Cyoia ◽

Gabriela Regina Rodrigues ◽

Erick Kenji Nishio ◽

Leonardo Pinto Medeiros ◽

Vanessa Lumi Koga ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Escherichia Coli ◽

Virulence Genes ◽

University Hospital ◽

Neonatal Meningitis ◽

Pathogenicity Islands ◽

Phylogenetic Groups ◽

Pathogenic Escherichia Coli ◽

Group A ◽

Tract Infections ◽

The University

Introduction: Extraintestinal pathogenic Escherichia coli (ExPEC) is associated with various diseases such as urinary tract infections, neonatal meningitis and septicemia. There are many virulence factors (VF) encoded by genes in ExPEC, including papC, papG, ecpA, iroN, fyuA, iutA, ompTp, tsh, hlyF, hlyA and iss. These virulence genes may be present in pathogenicity islands (PAI) or plasmids. Methodology: In this study, we analyzed the presence of VF encoding genes, PAI sequences and phylogenetic groups of 96 ExPEC strains isolated from the urine and blood of patients at the University Hospital of Londrina, and we compared them with 50 faecal commensal strains from healthy individuals. Results: The VF fyuA (65.60%) was detected in pathogenic strains and commensal strains (46%). A comparison of the distribution of ExPEC and commensal strains in the phylogenetic groups showed that more ExPEC strains belonged to group B2 whereas more of the commensal isolates belonged to group A. The distribution of the seven PAI sequences between commensal strains and ExPEC strains showed that PAI IV536 was common in both ExPEC and commensal isolates. Conclusions: These results showed that the ExPEC strains that belonged to group B2 had more PAI sequences compared to those of the other groups, especially group B1, which had virulence genes but the lowest percentage of PAI sequences, which leads us to conclude that the virulence of ExPEC strains characterized as B2 is likely attributed to PAI encoded genes, whereas the virulence of ExPEC strains belonging to phylogenetic group B1 is likely due to plasmid encoded virulence genes.

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