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Novel Moraxella catarrhalis prophages display hyperconserved non-structural genes despite their genomic diversity

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Genomics, October 2015
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (56th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (59th percentile)

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Title
Novel Moraxella catarrhalis prophages display hyperconserved non-structural genes despite their genomic diversity
Published in
BMC Genomics, October 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12864-015-2104-1
Pubmed ID
Authors

Amir Ariff, Michael J. Wise, Charlene M. Kahler, Chin Yen Tay, Fanny Peters, Timothy T. Perkins, Barbara J. Chang

Abstract

Moraxella catarrhalis is an important pathogen that often causes otitis media in children, a disease that is not currently vaccine preventable. Asymptomatic colonisation of the human upper respiratory tract is common and lack of clearance by the immune system is likely due to the emergence of seroresistant genetic lineages. No active bacteriophages or prophages have been described in this species. This study was undertaken to identify and categorise prophages in M. catarrhalis, their genetic diversity and the relationship of such diversity with the host-species phylogeny. This study presents a comparative analysis of 32 putative prophages identified in 95 phylogenetically variable, newly sequenced M. catarrhalis genomes. The prophages were genotypically classified into four diverse clades. The genetic synteny of each clade is similar to the group 1 phage family Siphoviridae, however, they form genotypic clusters that are distinct from other members of this family. No core genetic sequences exist across the 32 prophages despite clades 2, 3, and 4 sharing the most sequence identity. The analysis of non-structural prophage genes (coding the integrase, and terminase), and portal gene showed that the respective genes were identical for clades 2, 3, and 4, but unique for clade 1. Empirical analysis calculated that these genes are unexpectedly hyperconserved, under purifying selection, suggesting a tightly regulated functional role. As such, it is improbable that the prophages are decaying remnants but stable components of a fluctuating, flexible and unpredictable system ultimately maintained by functional constraints on non-structural and packaging genes. Additionally, the plate encoding genes were well conserved across all four prophage clades, and the tail fibre genes, commonly responsible for receptor recognition, were clustered into three major groups distributed across the prophage clades. A pan-genome of 283,622 bp was identified, and the prophages were mapped onto the diverse M. catarrhalis multi-locus sequence type (MLST) backbone. This study has provided the first evidence of putatively mobile prophages in M. catarrhalis, identifying a diverse and fluctuating system dependent on the hyperconservation of a few key, non-structural genes. Some prophages harbour virulence-related genes, and potentially influence the physiology and virulence of M. catarrhalis. Importantly our data will provide supporting information on the identification of novel prophages in other species by adding greater weight to the identification of non-structural genes.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 40 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Malaysia 1 3%
France 1 3%
Unknown 38 95%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 9 23%
Student > Master 5 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 4 10%
Student > Postgraduate 3 8%
Student > Bachelor 2 5%
Other 5 13%
Unknown 12 30%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 8 20%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 15%
Medicine and Dentistry 6 15%
Nursing and Health Professions 2 5%
Immunology and Microbiology 2 5%
Other 2 5%
Unknown 14 35%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 3. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 13 November 2015.
All research outputs
#12,743,645
of 22,831,537 outputs
Outputs from BMC Genomics
#4,401
of 10,655 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#123,499
of 283,725 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Genomics
#135
of 354 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,831,537 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 43rd percentile – i.e., 43% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 10,655 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.7. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 57% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 283,725 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 56% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 354 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 59% of its contemporaries.