'Ménage à trois': a selfish genetic element uses a virus to propagate within Thermotogales. (2nd March 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lossouarn, Julien; Nesbø, Camilla L.; Mercier, Coraline; Zhaxybayeva, Olga; Johnson, Milo S.; Charchuck, Rhianna; Farasin, Julien; Bienvenu, Nadège; Baudoux, Anne‐Claire; Michoud, Grégoire; Jebbar, Mohamed; Geslin, Claire
• Is Part Of: Environmental microbiology. Volume 17:Number 9(2015:Sep.)
• Page Start: 3278
• Page End: 3288
• Publication Date: 2015-03-02
• Subjects: Microbial ecology -- Periodicals; Environmental Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579.17
• DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.12783
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1462-2912

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main"> <title>Summary</title> <p>Prokaryotic viruses play a major role in the microbial ecology and evolution. However, the virosphere associated with deep‐sea hydrothermal ecosystems remains largely unexplored. Numerous instances of lateral gene transfer have contributed to the complex and incongruent evolutionary history of <italic>T</italic><italic>hermotogales</italic>, an order well represented in deep‐sea hydrothermal vents. The presence of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) loci has been reported in all <italic>T</italic><italic>hermotogales</italic> genomes, suggesting that these bacteria have been exposed to viral infections that could have mediated gene exchange. In this study, we isolated and characterized the first virus infecting bacteria from the order <italic>T</italic><italic>hermotogales</italic>, <italic>M</italic><italic>arinitoga piezophila</italic> virus 1 (MPV1). The host, <italic>M</italic><italic>arinitoga piezophila</italic> is a thermophilic, anaerobic and piezophilic bacterium isolated from a deep‐sea hydrothermal chimney. MPV1 is a temperate <italic>S</italic><italic>iphoviridae</italic>‐like virus with a 43.7 kb genome. Surprisingly, we found that MPV1 virions carry not only the viral DNA but preferentially package a plasmid of 13.3 kb (pMP1) also carried by <italic>M</italic><italic>. piezophila</italic>. This 'ménage à trois' highlights potential relevance of selfish genetic elements in facilitating lateral gene transfer in the deep‐sea biosphere.</p> </abstract>