JB Accepts, published online ahead of print on 1 June 2007

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Reprints and Permissions Copyright Information Books from ASM Press MicrobeWorld Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Maiques, E. Articles by Penadés, J. R Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Maiques, E. Articles by Penadés, J. R

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.00619-07
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Role of staphylococcal phage and SaPI integrase in intra- and interspecies SaPI transfer

Elisa Maiques, Carles Úbeda, María Ángeles Tormo, María Desamparados Ferrer, Íñigo Lasa, Richard P Novick, and José R Penadés^*

Centro de Investigación y Tecnología Animal, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias (CITA-IVIA), Apdo. 187, 12.400 Segorbe, Castellón, Spain; Departamento de Química, Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, CEU-Universidad Cardenal Herrera, 46113 Moncada, Valencia, Spain; Skirball Institute, New York University Medical Center, 540 First Avenue, New York, NY 10016, USA; Instituto de Agrobiotecnología y Recursos Naturales, CSIC-Universidad Pública de Navarra, 31006 Pamplona, Navarra, Spain

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jpenades{at}ivia.es.

SaPIbov2 is a member of the SaPI family of staphylococcal pathogenicity islands, very closely related to SaPIbov1. Typically, certain temperate phages can induce excision and replication of one or more of these islands and can package them into special small phage-like particles commensurate with their genome sizes (referred to as the excision-replication-packaging (ERP) cycle). We have studied the phage-SaPI interaction in some depth, using SaPIbov2, with special reference to the role of its integrase. We demonstrate that SaPIbov2 can be induced to replicate by different staphylococcal phages. After replication, SaPIbov2 is efficiently encapsidated and transferred to a recipient organism, including different non-aureus staphylococci, where it integrates at a SaPI-specific attachment site, att_C, by means of a self-coded integrase (Int). Phages that cannot induce the SaPIbov2 ERP cycle can transfer the island by recA-dependent classical generalized transduction, and can also transfer it by a novel mechanism that requires the expression of SaPIbov2 int in the recipient, but not in the donor. It is suggested that this mechanism involves the encapsidation of standard transducing fragments containing the intact island followed by int-mediated excision, circularization and integration in the recipient.

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Chen, J., Novick, R. P. (2009). Phage-Mediated Intergeneric Transfer of Toxin Genes. Science 323: 139-141 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Shore, A. C., Rossney, A. S., O'Connell, B., Herra, C. M., Sullivan, D. J., Humphreys, H., Coleman, D. C. (2008). Detection of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec-Associated DNA Segments in Multiresistant Methicillin-Susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) and Identification of Staphylococcus epidermidis ccrAB4 in both Methicillin-Resistant S. aureus and MSSA. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 52: 4407-4419 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Tormo, M. A., Ferrer, M. D., Maiques, E., Ubeda, C., Selva, L., Lasa, I., Calvete, J. J., Novick, R. P., Penades, J. R. (2008). Staphylococcus aureus Pathogenicity Island DNA Is Packaged in Particles Composed of Phage Proteins. J. Bacteriol. 190: 2434-2440 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Subedi, A., Ubeda, C., Adhikari, R. P., Penades, J. R., Novick, R. P. (2007). Sequence analysis reveals genetic exchanges and intraspecific spread of SaPI2, a pathogenicity island involved in menstrual toxic shock. Microbiology 153: 3235-3245 [Abstract] [Full Text]