ArticlePloS one2010
Prophage spontaneous activation promotes DNA release enhancing biofilm formation in Streptococcus pneumoniae.
Article in PloS one, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 91 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
91 citing papers in PubMed, 155 citations in OpenAlex.
- Participation of the Transcriptional Regulator Fur in Modulating Biofilm Formation of the Salmonid PathogenInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- Chemical prophage induction selectively removes Vibrio from a pelagic Sargassum-derived multispecies biofilm.Environmental microbiome · 2026Article
- The interplay between the marine diazotrophApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026Article
- Bacteriophage-mediated biofilm control: a novel targeted strategy for the management of dental caries.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Review
- Human gut strains ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- eDNA-Amyloid Synergistic Interactions in Bacterial Biofilms: A Hidden Driver of Antimicrobial Resistance.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- A φSa3int (NM3) Prophage Domestication inMedComm · 2025Article
- Rapid assembly of biofilms from DNA released by SOS-inducing drugs in enteric bacteria.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- A transcription factor from the cryptic Escherichia coli Rac prophage controls both phage and host operons.Nucleic acids research · 2025Article
- Urinary bacteriophage cooperation with bacterial pathogens during human urinary tract infections supports lysogenic phage therapy.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Lethal perturbation of an Escherichia coli regulatory network is triggered by a restriction-modification system's regulator and can be mitigated by excision of the cryptic prophage Rac.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- The spontaneously produced lysogenic prophage phi456 promotes bacterial resistance to adverse environments and enhances the colonization ability of avian pathogenic Escherichia coli strain DE456.Veterinary research · 2024Article
- Role of Virus on Oral Biofilm: Inducer or Eradicator?Applied biochemistry and biotechnology · 2024Review
- Appelmans protocol - A directed in vitro evolution enables induction and recombination of prophages with expanded host range.Virus research · 2024Article
- InducedFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- Genotoxic stress stimulates eDNA release via explosive cell lysis and thereby promotes streamer formation of Burkholderia cenocepacia H111 cultured in a microfluidic device.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2023Article
- Occurrence and genetic diversity of prophage sequences identified in the genomes of L. casei group bacteria.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- The Role of Temperate Phages in Bacterial Pathogenicity.Microorganisms · 2023Review
- Casposons - silent heroes of the CRISPR-Cas systems evolutionary history.EXCLI journal · 2023Review
- Characterization of a New TemperatePathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
31 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) is able to form biofilms in vivo and previous studies propose that pneumococcal biofilms play a relevant role both in colonization and infection. Additionally, pneumococci recovered from human infections are characterized by a high prevalence of lysogenic bacteriophages (phages) residing quiescently in their host chromosome. We investigated a possible link between lysogeny and biofilm formation. Considering that extracellular DNA (eDNA) is a key factor in the biofilm matrix, we reasoned that prophage spontaneous activation with the consequent bacterial host lysis could provide a source of eDNA, enhancing pneumococcal biofilm development. Monitoring biofilm growth of lysogenic and non-lysogenic pneumococcal strains indicated that phage-infected bacteria are more proficient at forming biofilms, that is their biofilms are characterized by a higher biomass and cell viability. The presence of phage particles throughout the lysogenic strains biofilm development implicated prophage spontaneous induction in this effect. Analysis of lysogens deficient for phage lysin and the bacterial major autolysin revealed that the absence of either lytic activity impaired biofilm development and the addition of DNA restored the ability of mutant strains to form robust biofilms. These findings establish that limited phage-mediated host lysis of a fraction of the bacterial population, due to spontaneous phage induction, constitutes an important source of eDNA for the S. pneumoniae biofilm matrix and that this localized release of eDNA favors biofilm formation by the remaining bacterial population.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.