Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33570565›Full record

ArticleMolecular biology and evolution2021

Causes and Consequences of Bacteriophage Diversification via Genetic Exchanges across Lifestyles and Bacterial Taxa.

Jorge A Moura de Sousa, Eugen Pfeifer, Marie Touchon, Eduardo P C Rocha

Erratum issuedOpen access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Molecular biology and evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 71 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
71citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
13.0field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

71 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  6. Review
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  13. Prophage diversity in poultry-associatedFrontiers in microbiology · 2026
    Article
  14. Genome-based taxonomic classification ofFrontiers in microbiology · 2026
    Article
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  17. Article
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  20. Review

11 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Jorge A Moura de SousaMicrobial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France.
Eugen PfeiferMicrobial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France.
Marie TouchonMicrobial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France.
Eduardo P C RochaMicrobial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France.ORCID 0000-0001-7704-822X
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique · FR

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Bacteriophages (phages) evolve rapidly by acquiring genes from other phages. This results in mosaic genomes. Here, we identify numerous genetic transfers between distantly related phages and aim at understanding their frequency, consequences, and the conditions favoring them. Gene flow tends to occur between phages that are enriched for recombinases, transposases, and nonhomologous end joining, suggesting that both homologous and illegitimate recombination contribute to gene flow. Phage family and host phyla are strong barriers to gene exchange, but phage lifestyle is not. Even if we observe four times more recent transfers between temperate phages than between other pairs, there is extensive gene flow between temperate and virulent phages, and between the latter. These predominantly involve virulent phages with large genomes previously classed as low gene flux, and lead to the preferential transfer of genes encoding functions involved in cell energetics, nucleotide metabolism, DNA packaging and injection, and virion assembly. Such exchanges may contribute to the observed twice larger genomes of virulent phages. We used genetic transfers, which occur upon coinfection of a host, to compare phage host range. We found that virulent phages have broader host ranges and can mediate genetic exchanges between narrow host range temperate phages infecting distant bacterial hosts, thus contributing to gene flow between virulent phages, as well as between temperate phages. This gene flow drastically expands the gene repertoires available for phage and bacterial evolution, including the transfer of functional innovations across taxa.

Indexed as

Biological EvolutionGene Transfer, HorizontalHost-Pathogen InteractionsBacteriophagesGene FlowRecombination, Geneticbacteriophagesgenomic diversificationhorizontal gene transfermicrobial evolution

Identifiers

PMID33570565
PMCPMC8136500
OpenAlexW3128142453

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

None linked

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.