TY - JOUR

T1 - Pirating conserved phage mechanisms promotes promiscuous staphylococcal pathogenicity island transfer

AU - Bowring, Janine

AU - Neamah, Maan M

AU - Donderis, Jorge

AU - Mir-Sanchis, Ignacio

AU - Alite, Christian

AU - Ciges-Tomas, J Rafael

AU - Maiques, Elisa

AU - Medmedov, Iltyar

AU - Marina, Alberto

AU - Penadés, José R

PY - 2017/8/8

Y1 - 2017/8/8

N2 - Targeting conserved and essential processes is a successful strategy to combat enemies. Remarkably, the clinically important Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) use this tactic to spread in nature. SaPIs reside passively in the host chromosome, under the control of the SaPI-encoded master repressor, Stl. It has been assumed that SaPI de-repression is effected by specific phage proteins that bind to Stl, initiating the SaPI cycle. Different SaPIs encode different Stl repressors, so each targets a specific phage protein for its de-repression. Broadening this narrow vision, we report here that SaPIs ensure their promiscuous transfer by targeting conserved phage mechanisms. This is accomplished because the SaPI Stl repressors have acquired different domains to interact with unrelated proteins, encoded by different phages, but in all cases performing the same conserved function. This elegant strategy allows intra- and inter-generic SaPI transfer, highlighting these elements as one of nature's most fascinating subcellular parasites.

AB - Targeting conserved and essential processes is a successful strategy to combat enemies. Remarkably, the clinically important Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) use this tactic to spread in nature. SaPIs reside passively in the host chromosome, under the control of the SaPI-encoded master repressor, Stl. It has been assumed that SaPI de-repression is effected by specific phage proteins that bind to Stl, initiating the SaPI cycle. Different SaPIs encode different Stl repressors, so each targets a specific phage protein for its de-repression. Broadening this narrow vision, we report here that SaPIs ensure their promiscuous transfer by targeting conserved phage mechanisms. This is accomplished because the SaPI Stl repressors have acquired different domains to interact with unrelated proteins, encoded by different phages, but in all cases performing the same conserved function. This elegant strategy allows intra- and inter-generic SaPI transfer, highlighting these elements as one of nature's most fascinating subcellular parasites.

KW - Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial

KW - Gene Transfer, Horizontal

KW - Genomic Islands

KW - Host-Parasite Interactions

KW - Interspersed Repetitive Sequences

KW - Repressor Proteins/metabolism

KW - Staphylococcus Phages

KW - Staphylococcus aureus/genetics

KW - Transduction, Genetic

KW - Viral Proteins/metabolism

U2 - 10.7554/eLife.26487

DO - 10.7554/eLife.26487

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28826473

VL - 6

JO - eLife

JF - eLife

SN - 2050-084X

ER -