ArticlePLoS biology2022
Prophage-like gene transfer agents promote Caulobacter crescentus survival and DNA repair during stationary phase.
Article in PLoS biology, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The mechanism of biofilm degradation by a detachable tailspike of gene transfer agents.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Soil to host environmental determinants fueling horizontal gene transfer and global AMR dissemination.Folia microbiologica · 2026Review
- Perturbations shift the composition of bacterial DNA carried by virus-like particles in the murine gut microbiome.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- High throughput chromatographic ultra-purification of virus-like particles for downstream viromics.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- A bacterial CARD-NLR-like immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- TrIdent - An R package to automate transductomics analysis of virus-like particle mediated DNA mobilization.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Large-scale capsid-mediated mobilisation of bacterial genomic DNA in the gut microbiome.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Allosteric activation mechanism of DriD, a WYL-domain containing transcription regulator.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Spatial propagation of temperate phages within and among biofilms.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Gene transfer agents: The ambiguous role of selfless viruses in genetic exchange and bacterial evolution.Molecular microbiology · 2025Review
- Control of a gene transfer agent cluster in Caulobacter crescentus by transcriptional activation and anti-termination.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Pseudo-pac site sequences used by phage P22 in generalized transduction of Salmonella.PLoS pathogens · 2024Article
- Pseudo-pac site sequences used by phage P22 in generalized transduction ofbioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Widespread prevalence of a methylation-dependent switch to activate an essential DNA damage response in bacteria.PLoS biology · 2024Article
- Co-evolution of gene transfer agents and their alphaproteobacterial hosts.Journal of bacteriology · 2024Article
- Mapping the IscR regulon sheds light on the regulation of iron homeostasis inFrontiers in microbiology · 2024Article
- XRE transcription factors conserved in Caulobacter and φCbK modulate adhesin development and phage production.PLoS genetics · 2023Article
- SOS-independent bacterial DNA damage responses: diverse mechanisms, unifying function.Current opinion in microbiology · 2023Review
- Virus-derived gene transfer agents benefit host cells by providing templates for DNA repair.PLoS biology · 2022Article
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5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Gene transfer agents (GTAs) are prophage-like entities found in many bacterial genomes that cannot propagate themselves and instead package approximately 5 to 15 kbp fragments of the host genome that can then be transferred to related recipient cells. Although suggested to facilitate horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the wild, no clear physiological role for GTAs has been elucidated. Here, we demonstrate that the α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus produces bona fide GTAs. The production of Caulobacter GTAs is tightly regulated by a newly identified transcription factor, RogA, that represses gafYZ, the direct activators of GTA synthesis. Cells lacking rogA or expressing gafYZ produce GTAs harboring approximately 8.3 kbp fragment of the genome that can, after cell lysis, be transferred into recipient cells. Notably, we find that GTAs promote the survival of Caulobacter in stationary phase and following DNA damage by providing recipient cells a template for homologous recombination-based repair. This function may be broadly conserved in other GTA-producing organisms and explain the prevalence of this unusual HGT mechanism.
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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.