Comparative transcriptomics analyses reveal the conservation of an ancestral infectious strategy in two bacteriophage genera.

ABSTRACT: Although the evolution of tailed bacteriophages has increasingly been better understood through comparisons of their DNA sequences, the functional consequences of this evolution on phage infectious strategies have remained unresolved. In this study, we comprehensively compared the transcriptional strategies of two related myoviruses, PAK_P3 and PAK_P4, infecting the same Pseudomonas aeruginosa host strain. Outside of the conservation of their structural clusters, their highly syntenic genomes display only limited DNA similarity. Despite this apparent divergence, we found that both viruses follow a similar infection scheme, relying on a temporal regulation of their gene expression, likely involving the use of antisense transcripts, as well as a rapid degradation of 90% of the host non-ribos

SUBMITTER: Blasdel BG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5563952 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature