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Viral molecular mimicry circumvents abortive infection and suppresses bacterial suicide to make hosts permissive for replication

Blower, T.R.; Short, F.L.; Fineran, P.C.; Salmond, G.P.

Viral molecular mimicry circumvents abortive infection and suppresses bacterial suicide to make hosts permissive for replication Thumbnail


Authors

F.L. Short

P.C. Fineran

G.P. Salmond



Abstract

The global interplay between bacteria and bacteriophages has generated many macromolecules useful in biotechnology, through the co-evolutionary see-saw of bacterial defense and viral counter-attack measures. Bacteria can protect themselves using abortive infection systems, which induce altruistic suicide in an infected cell and therefore protect the clonal population at the expense of the infected individual. Our recent paper describes how bacteriophage ΦTE successfully subverted the activity of a plasmid-borne abortive infection system. ΦTE evolved mimics of the small RNA antitoxin that naturally inhibits the active toxin component of this anti-viral mechanism. These mutant phages further manipulated the behavior of the host population, through transduction of the plasmid encoding the abortive infection system. Transductants thereby became enslaved by the abortive infection system, committing suicide in response to infection by the original phage population. In effect, the new host was infected by an “addictive altruism,” to the advantage of the resistant bacteriophage.

Citation

Blower, T., Short, F., Fineran, P., & Salmond, G. (2012). Viral molecular mimicry circumvents abortive infection and suppresses bacterial suicide to make hosts permissive for replication. Bacteriophage, 2(4), 234-238. https://doi.org/10.4161/bact.23830

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Oct 1, 2012
Publication Date Oct 1, 2012
Deposit Date Sep 28, 2015
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Bacteriophage
Print ISSN 2159-7073
Electronic ISSN 2159-7081
Publisher Taylor and Francis
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2
Issue 4
Pages 234-238
DOI https://doi.org/10.4161/bact.23830

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2013 Landes Bioscience This is an open-access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. The article may be redistributed, reproduced, and reused for non-commercial purposes, provided the original source is properly cited.





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