Department of Immunology and Microbiology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, Colorado, USA.
J Bacteriol. 2021 Oct 12;203(21):e0017721. doi: 10.1128/JB.00177-21. Epub 2021 Aug 9.
Enterococci are Gram-positive bacteria that have evolved to thrive as both commensals and pathogens, largely due to their accumulation of mobile genetic elements via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Common agents of HGT include plasmids, transposable elements, and temperate bacteriophages. These vehicles of HGT have facilitated the evolution of the enterococci, specifically Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, into multidrug-resistant hospital-acquired pathogens. On the other hand, commensal strains of harbor CRISPR-Cas systems that prevent the acquisition of foreign DNA, restricting the accumulation of mobile genetic elements. In this review, we discuss enterococcal mobile genetic elements by highlighting their contributions to bacterial fitness, examine the impact of CRISPR-Cas on their acquisition, and identify key areas of research that can improve our understanding of enterococcal evolution and ecology.
肠球菌是革兰氏阳性细菌，由于通过水平基因转移（HGT）积累了移动遗传元件，因此已经进化为共生菌和病原体。HGT 的常见因子包括质粒、转座元件和温和噬菌体。这些 HGT 载体促进了肠球菌（特别是粪肠球菌和屎肠球菌）向多药耐药的医院获得性病原体的进化。另一方面，共生株 携带 CRISPR-Cas 系统，可防止外源 DNA 的获取，限制了移动遗传元件的积累。在这篇综述中，我们通过强调其对细菌适应性的贡献来讨论肠球菌的移动遗传元件，研究 CRISPR-Cas 对其获取的影响，并确定可以增进我们对肠球菌进化和生态理解的关键研究领域。
