{"database":"biostudies-literature","file_versions":[],"scores":null,"additional":{"omics_type":["Unknown"],"volume":["11(18)"],"submitter":["Byers SMH"],"pubmed_abstract":["Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that can kill bacteria, thereby editing and shaping microbial communities. The telomere phages are a curious form using telomere-like structures to replicate their genomes as linear extrachromosomal elements. Here, we find that telomere phages are widely distributed in bacteria, being highly prevalent in <i>Klebsiella</i> species. We establish a model system to investigate telomere phage biology by isolating the virions of telomere phages and infecting naïve strains to create isogenic lines with and without a phage. We find that only a small set of telomere phage proteins is expressed in phage-host cells, including a toxin-the telocin-that kills other <i>Klebsiella</i> strains. We identify and validate a set of telocins in the genomes of other prevalent "],"journal":["Science advances"],"pagination":["eadt1627"],"full_dataset_link":["https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC12042878"],"repository":["biostudies-literature"],"pubmed_title":["Telomere bacteriophages are widespread and equip their bacterial hosts with potent interbacterial weapons."],"pmcid":["PMC12042878"],"pubmed_authors":["Rocker A","Lithgow T","Short FL","Tan KS","Byers SMH","Steele JR","Rosas NC","Li Y","Taiaroa G","Schittenhelm RB","Dunstan RA","Wilksch JJ","Nguyen TNT"],"additional_accession":[]},"is_claimable":false,"name":"Telomere bacteriophages are widespread and equip their bacterial hosts with potent interbacterial weapons.","description":"Bacteriophages (phages) are viruses that can kill bacteria, thereby editing and shaping microbial communities. The telomere phages are a curious form using telomere-like structures to replicate their genomes as linear extrachromosomal elements. Here, we find that telomere phages are widely distributed in bacteria, being highly prevalent in <i>Klebsiella</i> species. We establish a model system to investigate telomere phage biology by isolating the virions of telomere phages and infecting naïve strains to create isogenic lines with and without a phage. We find that only a small set of telomere phage proteins is expressed in phage-host cells, including a toxin-the telocin-that kills other <i>Klebsiella</i> strains. We identify and validate a set of telocins in the genomes of other prevalent ","dates":{"release":"2025-01-01T00:00:00Z","publication":"2025 May","modification":"2026-06-03T02:42:30.37Z","creation":"2025-07-06T03:06:00.694Z"},"accession":"S-EPMC12042878","cross_references":{"pubmed":["40305614"],"doi":["10.1126/sciadv.adt1627"]}}