Penttinen Reetta, Given Cindy, Jalasvuori Matti
Department of Biological and Environmental Science and Nanoscience Center, University of Jyväskylä, Survontie 9C, P.O.Box 35, FI-40014 Jyväskylä, Finland.
Department of Biology, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland.
Microorganisms. 2021 Jan 29;9(2):280. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms9020280.
Antibiotic resistance genes of important Gram-negative bacterial pathogens are residing in mobile genetic elements such as conjugative plasmids. These elements rapidly disperse between cells when antibiotics are present and hence our continuous use of antimicrobials selects for elements that often harbor multiple resistance genes. Plasmid-dependent (or male-specific or, in some cases, pilus-dependent) bacteriophages are bacterial viruses that infect specifically bacteria that carry certain plasmids. The introduction of these specialized phages into a plasmid-abundant bacterial community has many beneficial effects from an anthropocentric viewpoint: the majority of the plasmids are lost while the remaining plasmids acquire mutations that make them untransferable between pathogens. Recently, bacteriophage-based therapies have become a more acceptable choice to treat multi-resistant bacterial infections. Accordingly, there is a possibility to utilize these specialized phages, which are not dependent on any particular pathogenic species or strain but rather on the resistance-providing elements, in order to improve or enlengthen the lifespan of conventional antibiotic approaches. Here, we take a snapshot of the current knowledge of plasmid-dependent bacteriophages.
重要革兰氏阴性菌病原体的抗生素抗性基因存在于可移动遗传元件中，如接合质粒。当存在抗生素时，这些元件会在细胞间迅速扩散，因此我们持续使用抗菌药物会选择那些通常携带多个抗性基因的元件。质粒依赖性（或雄性特异性，或在某些情况下，菌毛依赖性）噬菌体是一类细菌病毒，它们专门感染携带某些质粒的细菌。从人类中心主义的观点来看，将这些特殊噬菌体引入富含质粒的细菌群落有许多有益效果：大多数质粒会丢失，而剩余的质粒会发生突变，使其无法在病原体之间转移。最近，基于噬菌体的疗法已成为治疗多重耐药细菌感染更可接受的选择。因此，有可能利用这些不依赖于任何特定致病物种或菌株，而是依赖于提供抗性的元件的特殊噬菌体，来改善或延长传统抗生素方法的使用寿命。在这里，我们简要介绍一下目前关于质粒依赖性噬菌体的知识。
