Origins of Highly Mosaic Mycobacteriophage Genomes

Pedulla, M and Ford, M E and Houtz, J M and Karthikeyan, T and Wadsworth, C and Lewis, J A and Jacobs-Sera, D and Falbo, J and Gross, J and Pannunzio, N R and Brucker, W and Kumar, Vanaja and Kandasamy, Jayasankar and Keenan, L and Bardarov, S and Kriakov, J and Lawrence , J G and Jacobs, W R and Hendrix, R W and Hatfull, G F (2003) Origins of Highly Mosaic Mycobacteriophage Genomes. Cell, 113 (2). pp. 171-182. ISSN 0092-8674

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Abstract

Bacteriophages are the most abundant organisms in the biosphere and play major roles in the ecological balance of microbial life. The genomic sequences of ten newly isolated mycobacteriophages suggest that the bacteriophage population as a whole is amazingly diverse and may represent the largest unexplored reservoir of sequence information in the biosphere. Genomic comparison of these mycobacteriophages contributes to our understanding of the mechanisms of viral evolution and provides compelling evidence for the role of illegitimate recombination in horizontal genetic exchange. The promiscuity of these recombination events results in the inclusion of many unexpected genes including those implicated in mycobacterial latency, the cellular and immune responses to mycobacterial infections, and autoimmune diseases such as human lupus. While the role of phages as vehicles of toxin genes is well established, these observations suggest a much broader involvement of phages in bacterial virulence and the host response to bacterial infections.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Tuberculosis > Laboratory Research > Bacteriological
Divisions:	Basic Science Research > Bacteriology
Depositing User:	Dr. Rathinasabapati R
Date Deposited:	14 Nov 2013 07:50
Last Modified:	09 Mar 2016 10:58
URI:	http://eprints.nirt.res.in/id/eprint/631

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