Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Dec;22(12):4919-4933.
doi: 10.1111/1462-2920.15233. Epub 2020 Sep 29.

Lysogeny in the oceans: Lessons from cultivated model systems and a reanalysis of its prevalence

Matthew J Tuttle  1 , Alison Buchan  1
Affiliations
Review

Lysogeny in the oceans: Lessons from cultivated model systems and a reanalysis of its prevalence

Matthew J Tuttle et al. Environ Microbiol. 2020 Dec.

Abstract

In the oceans, viruses that infect bacteria (phages) influence a variety of microbially mediated processes that drive global biogeochemical cycles. The nature of their influence is dependent upon infection mode, be it lytic or lysogenic. Temperate phages are predicted to be prevalent in marine systems where they are expected to execute both types of infection modes. Understanding the range and outcomes of temperate phage-host interactions is fundamental for evaluating their ecological impact. Here, we (i) review phage-mediated rewiring of host metabolism, with a focus on marine systems, (ii) consider the range and nature of temperate phage-host interactions, and (iii) draw on studies of cultivated model systems to examine the consequences of lysogeny among several dominant marine bacterial lineages. We also readdress the prevalence of lysogeny among marine bacteria by probing a collection of 1239 publicly available bacterial genomes, representing cultured and uncultivated strains, for evidence of complete prophages. Our conservative analysis, anticipated to underestimate true prevalence, predicts 18% of the genomes examined contain at least one prophage, the majority (97%) were found within genomes of cultured isolates. These results highlight the need for cultivation of additional model systems to better capture the diversity of temperate phage-host interactions in the oceans.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Alonso-Sáez, L., and Gasol, J.M. (2007) Seasonal variations in the contributions of different bacterial groups to the uptake of low-molecular-weight compounds in northwestern Mediterranean coastal waters. Appl Environ Microbiol 73: 3528-3535.
    1. Alrasheed, H., Jin, R., and Weitz, J.S. (2019) Caution in inferring viral strategies from abundance correlations in marine metagenomes. Nat Commun 10: 501.
    1. Ankrah, N.Y.D., May, A.L., Middleton, J.L., Jones, D.R., Hadden, M.K., Gooding, J.R., et al. (2014) Phage infection of an environmentally relevant marine bacterium alters host metabolism and lysate composition. ISME J 8: 1089-1100.
    1. Basso, J.T.R., Ankrah, N.Y.D., Tuttle, M.J., Grossman, A.S., Sandaa, R.-A., and Buchan, A. (2020) Genetically similar temperate phages form coalitions with their shared host that lead to niche-specific fitness effects. ISME J 14: 1688-1700.
    1. Beleneva, I.A. (2008) Distribution and characteristics of Bacillus bacteria associated with hydrobionts and the waters of the Peter the Great Bay, sea of Japan. Microbiology 77: 497-503.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources