7-Deazaguanine modifications protect phage DNA from host restriction systems
Author(s)
Hillebrand, Roman; Sassanfar, Mandana; Dedon, Peter C.
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Genome modifications are central components of the continuous arms race between viruses and their hosts. The archaeosine base (G+), which was thought to be found only in archaeal tRNAs, was recently detected in genomic DNA of Enterobacteria phage 9g and was proposed to protect phage DNA from a wide variety of restriction enzymes. In this study, we identify three additional 2′-deoxy-7-deazaguanine modifications, which are all intermediates of the same pathway, in viruses: 2′-deoxy-7-amido-7-deazaguanine (dADG), 2′-deoxy-7-cyano-7-deazaguanine (dPreQ0) and 2′-deoxy-7- aminomethyl-7-deazaguanine (dPreQ1). We identify 180 phages or archaeal viruses that encode at least one of the enzymes of this pathway with an overrepresentation (60%) of viruses potentially infecting pathogenic microbial hosts. Genetic studies with the Escherichia phage CAjan show that DpdA is essential to insert the 7-deazaguanine base in phage genomic DNA and that 2′-deoxy-7-deazaguanine modifications protect phage DNA from host restriction enzymes.
Date issued
2019-11Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Environmental Health Sciences; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of BiologyJournal
Nature Communications
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Hutinet, Geoffrey et al. “7-Deazaguanine modifications protect phage DNA from host restriction systems.” Nature Communications 10 (2019): 5442 © 2019 The Author(s)
Version: Final published version
ISSN
2041-1723