新加坡国立大学John Chen等研究人员合作发现，横向转导通过捎带实现双致病岛转移。2023年8月3日，国际知名学术期刊《细胞》发表了这一成果。

研究人员报告了携带超抗原的葡萄球菌致病岛（SaPI）采用了一种相关但更多变、更复杂的基因转移机制，在自我转移宿主的额外毒力基因的同时，驱动染色体的过度移动。研究人员发现，在噬菌体感染或噬菌体诱导后，活化的SaPI通过在复制泡中的平行基因组轨道之间切换，在细菌染色体中形成连接体。

这种动态生命周期使SaPIbov1能够搭载葡萄球菌致病岛vSaα的横向转导（LT），后者编码一系列参与宿主-病原体相互作用的基因，从而使两个致病岛都能完整地调动起来，并在单个感染粒子中转移。这些研究结果突显了致病岛在细菌毒力中以前未知的作用，并表明它们对演化的影响超出了它们携带的基因。

据介绍，LT是温带噬菌体调动大段细菌基因组的过程。尽管它很重要，但人们只在原噬菌体诱导过程中观察到它。

附：英文原文

Title: Dual pathogenicity island transfer by piggybacking lateral transduction

Author: Melissa Su Juan Chee, Ester Serrano, Yin Ning Chiang, Joshua Harling-Lee, Rebecca Man, Rodrigo Bacigalupe, J. Ross Fitzgerald, José R. Penadés, John Chen

Issue&Volume: 2023/08/03

Abstract: Lateral transduction (LT) is the process by which temperate phages mobilize largesections of bacterial genomes. Despite its importance, LT has only been observed duringprophage induction. Here, we report that superantigen-carrying staphylococcal pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) employ a related but more versatileand complex mechanism of gene transfer to drive chromosomal hypermobility while self-transferringwith additional virulence genes from the host. We found that after phage infectionor prophage induction, activated SaPIs form concatamers in the bacterial chromosomeby switching between parallel genomic tracks in replication bubbles. This dynamiclife cycle enables SaPIbov1 to piggyback its LT of staphylococcal pathogenicity islandvSaα, which encodes an array of genes involved in host-pathogen interactions, allowingboth islands to be mobilized intact and transferred in a single infective particle.Our findings highlight previously unknown roles of pathogenicity islands in bacterialvirulence and show that their evolutionary impact extends beyond the genes they carry.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.07.001

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(23)00734-1