Prophage-like gene transfer agents promote Caulobacter crescentus survival and DNA repair during stationary phase
Name
journal.pbio.3001790.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
3.43 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
104d9c65f6893b3185d7541e2322c331
Author(s)
Gozzi, Kevin
Tran, Ngat T
Modell, Joshua W
Le, Tung BK
Laub, Michael T
Date Issued
November 2022
Journal
PLOS Biology
Publisher
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Citation
Gozzi, Kevin, Tran, Ngat T, Modell, Joshua W, Le, Tung BK and Laub, Michael T. 2022. "Prophage-like gene transfer agents promote Caulobacter crescentus survival and DNA repair during stationary phase." PLOS Biology, 20 (11).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Gene transfer agents (GTAs) are prophage-like entities found in many bacterial genomes that cannot propagate themselves and instead package approximately 5 to 15 kbp fragments of the host genome that can then be transferred to related recipient cells. Although suggested to facilitate horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the wild, no clear physiological role for GTAs has been elucidated. Here, we demonstrate that the α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus produces bona fide GTAs. The production of Caulobacter GTAs is tightly regulated by a newly identified transcription factor, RogA, that represses gafYZ, the direct activators of GTA synthesis. Cells lacking rogA or expressing gafYZ produce GTAs harboring approximately 8.3 kbp fragment of the genome that can, after cell lysis, be transferred into recipient cells. Notably, we find that GTAs promote the survival of Caulobacter in stationary phase and following DNA damage by providing recipient cells a template for homologous recombination-based repair. This function may be broadly conserved in other GTA-producing organisms and explain the prevalence of this unusual HGT mechanism.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001790
