The defense island repertoire of the Escherichia coli pan-genome.

ABSTRACT: It has become clear in recent years that anti-phage defense systems cluster non-randomly within bacterial genomes in so-called "defense islands". Despite serving as a valuable tool for the discovery of novel defense systems, the nature and distribution of defense islands themselves remain poorly understood. In this study, we comprehensively mapped the defense system repertoire of >1,300 strains of Escherichia coli, the most widely studied organism for phage-bacteria interactions. We found that defense systems are usually carried on mobile genetic elements including prophages, integrative conjugative elements and transposons, which preferentially integrate at several dozens of dedicated hotspots in the E. coli genome. Each mobile genetic element type has a preferred integration position but

SUBMITTER: Hochhauser D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10121019 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature