| Title |
Bacterial viruses enable their host to acquire antibiotic resistance genes from neighbouring cells
|
|---|---|
| Published in |
Nature Communications, November 2016
|
| DOI | 10.1038/ncomms13333 |
| Pubmed ID | |
| Authors |
Jakob Haaber, Jørgen J. Leisner, Marianne T. Cohn, Arancha Catalan-Moreno, Jesper B. Nielsen, Henrik Westh, José R. Penadés, Hanne Ingmer |
| Abstract |
Prophages are quiescent viruses located in the chromosomes of bacteria. In the human pathogen, Staphylococcus aureus, prophages are omnipresent and are believed to be responsible for the spread of some antibiotic resistance genes. Here we demonstrate that release of phages from a subpopulation of S. aureus cells enables the intact, prophage-containing population to acquire beneficial genes from competing, phage-susceptible strains present in the same environment. Phage infection kills competitor cells and bits of their DNA are occasionally captured in viral transducing particles. Return of such particles to the prophage-containing population can drive the transfer of genes encoding potentially useful traits such as antibiotic resistance. This process, which can be viewed as 'auto-transduction', allows S. aureus to efficiently acquire antibiotic resistance both in vitro and in an in vivo virulence model (wax moth larvae) and enables it to proliferate under strong antibiotic selection pressure. Our results may help to explain the rapid exchange of antibiotic resistance genes observed in S. aureus. |
X Demographics
The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 207 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 34 | 16% |
| United Kingdom | 21 | 10% |
| Canada | 12 | 6% |
| Spain | 11 | 5% |
| France | 7 | 3% |
| Australia | 6 | 3% |
| Germany | 5 | 2% |
| Saudi Arabia | 5 | 2% |
| Ecuador | 4 | 2% |
| Other | 25 | 12% |
| Unknown | 77 | 37% |
Demographic breakdown
| Type | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Scientists | 105 | 51% |
| Members of the public | 95 | 46% |
| Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 5 | 2% |
| Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 2 | <1% |
Mendeley readers
The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 393 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.
Geographical breakdown
| Country | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Hungary | 1 | <1% |
| Portugal | 1 | <1% |
| Netherlands | 1 | <1% |
| Canada | 1 | <1% |
| Argentina | 1 | <1% |
| Denmark | 1 | <1% |
| United States | 1 | <1% |
| Unknown | 386 | 98% |
Demographic breakdown
| Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Student > Ph. D. Student | 95 | 24% |
| Student > Bachelor | 67 | 17% |
| Researcher | 49 | 12% |
| Student > Master | 48 | 12% |
| Student > Postgraduate | 16 | 4% |
| Other | 50 | 13% |
| Unknown | 68 | 17% |
| Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
|---|---|---|
| Agricultural and Biological Sciences | 111 | 28% |
| Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology | 75 | 19% |
| Immunology and Microbiology | 61 | 16% |
| Environmental Science | 16 | 4% |
| Engineering | 10 | 3% |
| Other | 38 | 10% |
| Unknown | 82 | 21% |
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 130. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 November 2023.
All research outputs
#326,453
of 25,837,817 outputs
Outputs from Nature Communications
#4,988
of 58,118 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#6,275
of 321,858 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Nature Communications
#112
of 963 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,837,817 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 58,118 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 55.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 91% of its peers.
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