title: Staphylococcus sciuri bacteriophages double-convert for staphylokinase and phospholipase, mediate interspecies plasmid transduction, and package mecA gene.
abstract: Staphylococcus sciuri is a bacterial pathogen associated with infections in animals and humans, and represents a reservoir for the mecA gene encoding methicillin-resistance in staphylococci. No S. sciuri siphophages were known. Here the identification and characterization of two temperate S. sciuri phages from the Siphoviridae family designated ϕ575 and ϕ879 are presented. The phages have icosahedral heads and flexible noncontractile tails that end with a tail spike. The genomes of the phages are 42,160 and 41,448 bp long and encode 58 and 55 ORFs, respectively, arranged in functional modules. Their head-tail morphogenesis modules are similar to those of Staphylococcus aureus ϕ13-like serogroup F phages, suggesting their common evolutionary origin. The genome of phage ϕ575 harbours genes for staphylokinase and phospholipase that might enhance the virulence of the bacterial hosts. In addition both of the phages package a homologue of the mecA gene, which is a requirement for its lateral transfer. Phage ϕ879 transduces tetracycline and aminoglycoside pSTS7-like resistance plasmids from its host to other S. sciuri strains and to S. aureus. Furthermore, both of the phages efficiently adsorb to numerous staphylococcal species, indicating that they may contribute to interspecies horizontal gene transfer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zeman
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mašlaňová
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Indráková
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Šiborová
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mikulášek
authors.affiliation: Czech Collection of Microorganisms, Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bendíčková
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Plevka
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic.|Czech Collection of Microorganisms, Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vrbovská
authors.affiliation: Central European Institute of Technology, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zdráhal
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Doškař
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pantůček
mesh_terms: D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D016679:Genome, Viral; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods; D058507:Host Specificity; D008666:Metalloendopeptidases / Q000378:metabolism*; D010740:Phospholipases / Q000378:metabolism*; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics*; D013210:Staphylococcus / Q000821:virology*; D013204:Staphylococcus Phages / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D014161:Transduction, Genetic; D053585:Virus Attachment
chemical_list: D010740:Phospholipases; D008666:Metalloendopeptidases; C022653:auR protein, Staphylococcus aureus