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A widespread family of polymorphic toxins encoded by temperate phages

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Biology, August 2017
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Title
A widespread family of polymorphic toxins encoded by temperate phages
Published in
BMC Biology, August 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12915-017-0415-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Anne Jamet, Marie Touchon, Bruno Ribeiro-Gonçalves, João André Carriço, Alain Charbit, Xavier Nassif, Mario Ramirez, Eduardo P. C. Rocha

Abstract

Polymorphic toxins (PTs) are multi-domain bacterial exotoxins belonging to distinct families that share common features in terms of domain organization. PTs are found in all major bacterial clades, including many toxic effectors of type V and type VI secretion systems. PTs modulate the dynamics of microbial communities by killing or inhibiting the growth of bacterial competitors lacking protective immunity proteins. In this work, we identified a novel widespread family of PTs, named MuF toxins, which were exclusively encoded within temperate phages and their prophages. By analyzing the predicted proteomes of 1845 bacteriophages and 2464 bacterial genomes, we found that MuF-containing proteins were frequently part of the DNA packaging module of tailed phages. Interestingly, MuF toxins were abundant in the human gut microbiome. Our results uncovered the presence of the MuF toxin family in the temperate phages of Firmicutes. The MuF toxin family is likely to play an important role in the ecology of the human microbiota where pathogens and commensal species belonging to the Firmicutes are abundant. We propose that MuF toxins could be delivered by phages into host bacteria and either influence the lysogeny decision or serve as bacterial weapons by inhibiting the growth of competing bacteria.

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The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 62 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 62 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 14 23%
Student > Ph. D. Student 7 11%
Student > Master 7 11%
Student > Bachelor 7 11%
Student > Postgraduate 5 8%
Other 10 16%
Unknown 12 19%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 20 32%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 14 23%
Immunology and Microbiology 8 13%
Environmental Science 2 3%
Chemistry 2 3%
Other 5 8%
Unknown 11 18%