1. Cluster K mycobacteriophages: insights into the evolutionary origins of mycobacteriophage TM4.
- Author
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Welkin H Pope, Christina M Ferreira, Deborah Jacobs-Sera, Robert C Benjamin, Ariangela J Davis, Randall J DeJong, Sarah C R Elgin, Forrest R Guilfoile, Mark H Forsyth, Alexander D Harris, Samuel E Harvey, Lee E Hughes, Peter M Hynes, Arrykka S Jackson, Marilyn D Jalal, Elizabeth A MacMurray, Coreen M Manley, Molly J McDonough, Jordan L Mosier, Larissa J Osterbann, Hannah S Rabinowitz, Corwin N Rhyan, Daniel A Russell, Margaret S Saha, Christopher D Shaffer, Stephanie E Simon, Erika F Sims, Isabel G Tovar, Emilie G Weisser, John T Wertz, Kathleen A Weston-Hafer, Kurt E Williamson, Bo Zhang, Steven G Cresawn, Paras Jain, Mariana Piuri, William R Jacobs, Roger W Hendrix, and Graham F Hatfull
- Subjects
Medicine ,Science - Abstract
Five newly isolated mycobacteriophages--Angelica, CrimD, Adephagia, Anaya, and Pixie--have similar genomic architectures to mycobacteriophage TM4, a previously characterized phage that is widely used in mycobacterial genetics. The nucleotide sequence similarities warrant grouping these into Cluster K, with subdivision into three subclusters: K1, K2, and K3. Although the overall genome architectures of these phages are similar, TM4 appears to have lost at least two segments of its genome, a central region containing the integration apparatus, and a segment at the right end. This suggests that TM4 is a recent derivative of a temperate parent, resolving a long-standing conundrum about its biology, in that it was reportedly recovered from a lysogenic strain of Mycobacterium avium, but it is not capable of forming lysogens in any mycobacterial host. Like TM4, all of the Cluster K phages infect both fast- and slow-growing mycobacteria, and all of them--with the exception of TM4--form stable lysogens in both Mycobacterium smegmatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis; immunity assays show that all five of these phages share the same immune specificity. TM4 infects these lysogens suggesting that it was either derived from a heteroimmune temperate parent or that it has acquired a virulent phenotype. We have also characterized a widely-used conditionally replicating derivative of TM4 and identified mutations conferring the temperature-sensitive phenotype. All of the Cluster K phages contain a series of well conserved 13 bp repeats associated with the translation initiation sites of a subset of the genes; approximately one half of these contain an additional sequence feature composed of imperfectly conserved 17 bp inverted repeats separated by a variable spacer. The K1 phages integrate into the host tmRNA and the Cluster K phages represent potential new tools for the genetics of M. tuberculosis and related species.
- Published
- 2011
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