A single Photorhabdus gene, makes caterpillars floppy (mcf), allows Escherichia coli to persist within and kill insects
Phillip J. Daborn,Nicholas R. Waterfield,Carlos P. Silva,C. P. Y. Au,Sadhana Sharma,Richard H. ffrench-Constant +5 more
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TLDR
It is shown that a single large Photorhabdus gene, makes caterpillars floppy (mcf), is sufficient to allow Esherichia coli both to persist within and kill an insect.Abstract:
Photorhabdus luminescens, a bacterium with alternate pathogenic and symbiotic phases of its lifestyle, represents a source of novel genes associated with both virulence and symbiosis. This entomopathogen lives in a “symbiosis of pathogens” with nematodes that invade insects. Thus the bacteria are symbiotic with entomopathogenic nematodes but become pathogenic on release from the nematode into the insect blood system. Within the insect, the bacteria need to both avoid the peptide- and cellular- (hemocyte) mediated immune response and also to kill the host, which then acts as a reservoir for bacterial and nematode reproduction. However, the mechanisms whereby Photorhabdus evades the insect immune system and kills the host are unclear. Here we show that a single large Photorhabdus gene, makes caterpillars floppy (mcf), is sufficient to allow Esherichia coli both to persist within and kill an insect. The predicted high molecular weight Mcf toxin has little similarity to other known protein sequences but carries a BH3 domain and triggers apoptosis in both insect hemocytes and the midgut epithelium.read more
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The genome sequence of the entomopathogenic bacterium Photorhabdus luminescens
Eric Duchaud,Christophe Rusniok,Lionel Frangeul,Carmen Buchrieser,Alain Givaudan,Sead Taourit,Stéphanie Bocs,Caroline Boursaux-Eude,Michael Chandler,Jean-François Charles,Elie Dassa,Richard Derose,Sylviane Derzelle,Georges Freyssinet,Sophie Gaudriault,Claudine Médigue,Anne Lanois,Kerrie Powell,Patricia Siguier,Rachel Vincent,Vincent Paul Mary Wingate,Mohamed Zouine,Philippe Glaser,Noël Boemare,Antoine Danchin,Frank Kunst +25 more
TL;DR: Compared with the genomes of related bacteria, the complete genome sequence of strain TT01 reveals the acquisition of virulence factors by extensive horizontal transfer and provides clues about the evolution of an insect pathogen.
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Polymorphic toxin systems: comprehensive characterization of trafficking modes, processing, mechanisms of action, immunity and ecology using comparative genomics
Dapeng Zhang,Robson Francisco de Souza,Robson Francisco de Souza,Vivek Anantharaman,Lakshminarayan M. Iyer,L. Aravind +5 more
TL;DR: Gene-neighborhood-analysis of polymorphic toxin systems predicts the presence of novel trafficking-related components, and also the organizational logic that allows toxin diversification through recombination, and several testable predictions regarding active sites and catalytic mechanisms are presented.
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Functional horizontal gene transfer from bacteria to eukaryotes
Filip Husnik,John P. McCutcheon +1 more
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Bacterial strategies to overcome insect defences.
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The louse-borne human pathogen Bartonella quintana is a genomic derivative of the zoonotic agent Bartonella henselae
Cecilia Alsmark,A. Carolin Frank,E. Olof Karlberg,Boris-Antoine Legault,David H. Ardell,Björn Canbäck,Björn Canbäck,Ann-Sofie Eriksson,A. Kristina Näslund,Scott A. Handley,Maxime Huvet,Bernard La Scola,Bernard La Scola,Martin Holmberg,Siv G. E. Andersson +14 more
TL;DR: Comparisons of the vector-host ecology of these organisms suggest that the utilization of host-restricted vectors is associated with accelerated rates of genome degradation and may explain why human pathogens transmitted by specialist vectors are outnumbered by zoonotic agents, which use vectors of broad host ranges.
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