Li Yakun, Wei Yuyun, Guo Xiao, Li Xiaohui, Lu Lining, Hu Lihua, He Zheng-Guo
State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Subtropical Agro-Bioresources, Guangxi Research Center for Microbial and Enzyme Engineering Technology, College of Life Science and Technology Guangxi University Nanning China.
mLife. 2024 Mar 26;3(1):87-100. doi: 10.1002/mlf2.12106. eCollection 2024 Mar.
Insertion sequences (ISs) exist widely in bacterial genomes, but their roles in the evolution of bacterial antiphage defense remain to be clarified. Here, we report that, under the pressure of phage infection, the IS transposition of into the gene can occur at high frequencies, which endows the mutant mycobacterium with a broad-spectrum antiphage ability. Lsr2 functions as a negative regulator and directly silences expression of a gene island composed of 11 lipid metabolism-related genes. The complete or partial loss of the gene island leads to a significant decrease of bacteriophage adsorption to the mycobacterium, thus defending against phage infection. Strikingly, a phage that has evolved mutations in two tail-filament genes can re-escape from the inactivation-triggered host defense. This study uncovered a new signaling pathway for activating antimycobacteriophage immunity by IS transposition and provided insight into the natural evolution of bacterial antiphage defense.
插入序列(ISs)广泛存在于细菌基因组中,但其在细菌抗噬菌体防御进化中的作用仍有待阐明。在此,我们报告,在噬菌体感染的压力下,IS可高频转座至基因中,这赋予突变分枝杆菌广谱抗噬菌体能力。Lsr2作为负调控因子,直接使由11个脂质代谢相关基因组成的基因岛的表达沉默。基因岛的完全或部分缺失导致噬菌体对分枝杆菌的吸附显著减少,从而抵御噬菌体感染。引人注目的是,在两个尾丝基因中发生突变的噬菌体能够从因失活引发的宿主防御中再次逃脱。本研究揭示了一条通过IS转座激活抗分枝杆菌噬菌体免疫的新信号通路,并为细菌抗噬菌体防御的自然进化提供了见解。