ArticleGenome biology and evolution2020
The Protector within: Comparative Genomics of APSE Phages across Aphids Reveals Rampant Recombination and Diverse Toxin Arsenals.
Article in Genome biology and evolution, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bacteriophages in the Rhizosphere: Roles in Nutrient Cycling, Bacterial Community Structure, and Animal-Mediated Dispersal.MicrobiologyOpen · 2026Review
- Phage toxin variants are linked to protection specificity in a defensive symbiont.Molecular biology and evolution · 2026Article
- Genomic structure and life history variation of isofemale lineages of Myzus persicae with different levels of parasitization by Diaeretiella rapae.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Ecological Mercenaries: Why Aphids Remain Premier Models for the Study of Ecological Symbiosis.Insects · 2025Review
- Unconventional structure and mechanisms for membrane interaction and translocation of the NF-κB-targeting toxin AIP56.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Flies co-opt bacterial toxins for use in defense against parasitoids.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- An aphid symbiont confers protection against a specialized RNA virus, another increases vulnerability to the same pathogen.Molecular ecology · 2023Article
- Do aphids in Dutch sweet pepper greenhouses carry heritable elements that protect them against biocontrol parasitoids?Evolutionary applications · 2022Article
- Diversity and function of arthropod endosymbiont toxins.Trends in microbiology · 2022Review
- Evolution in small steps and giant leaps.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Review
- Bacteriophages Roam the Wheat Phyllosphere.Viruses · 2022Article
- Genetic innovations in animal-microbe symbioses.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2022Review
- Evolutionary genomics of APSE: a tailed phage that lysogenically converts the bacterium Hamiltonella defensa into a heritable protective symbiont of aphids.Virology journal · 2021Article
- Horizontal Transfer of Microbial Toxin Genes to Gall Midge Genomes.Genome biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Triple RNA-Seq characterizes aphid gene expression in response to infection with unequally virulent strains of the endosymbiont Hamiltonella defensa.BMC genomics · 2021Article
- Co-Occurrence of Viruses, Plant Pathogens, and Symbionts in an Underexplored Hemipteran Clade.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2021Article
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 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Phages can fundamentally alter the physiology and metabolism of their hosts. Although these phages are ubiquitous in the bacterial world, they have seldom been described among endosymbiotic bacteria. One notable exception is the APSE phage that is found associated with the gammaproteobacterial Hamiltonella defensa, hosted by several insect species. This secondary facultative endosymbiont is not necessary for the survival of its hosts but can infect certain individuals or even whole populations. Its infection in aphids is often associated with protection against parasitoid wasps. This protective phenotype has actually been linked to the infection of the symbiont strain with an APSE, which carries a toxin cassette that varies among so-called "types." In the present work, we seek to expand our understanding of the diversity of APSE phages as well as the relations of their Hamiltonella hosts. For this, we assembled and annotated the full genomes of 16 APSE phages infecting Hamiltonella symbionts across ten insect species. Molecular and phylogenetic analyses suggest that recombination has occurred repeatedly among lineages. Comparative genomics of the phage genomes revealed two variable regions that are useful for phage typing. Additionally, we find that mobile elements could play a role in the acquisition of new genes in the toxin cassette. Altogether, we provide an unprecedented view of APSE diversity and their genome evolution across aphids. This genomic investigation will provide a valuable resource for the design and interpretation of experiments aiming at understanding the protective phenotype these phages confer to their insect hosts.
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.