2016年10月11日，國際學術權威刊物自然出版集團旗下子刊《Nature Communications》雜志在線發(fā)表了美國范德堡大學Sarah R. Bordenstein研究員和Seth R. Bordenstein研究員合作的一篇研究論文，研究發(fā)現(xiàn)一種感染細菌的病毒會與包括黑寡婦蜘蛛在內(nèi)的動物分享DNA序列。

感染細菌的病毒不會影響真核生物(比如動物、植物、真菌和原生生物)。病毒雖然常常會與宿主交換遺傳物質(zhì)，但吸收與宿主不同域生物的基因還是前所未見的。

Sarah Bordenstein和Seth Bordenstein對WO噬菌體，一種感染沃爾巴克氏體細菌的病毒進行了基因組測序。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，WO噬菌體基因組的一部分是由與真核生物類似的基因組成的。這些基因與昆蟲和蜘蛛負責毒素、調(diào)節(jié)宿主-微生物相互作用、宿主細胞自殺和跨細胞膜轉運的基因密切相關。由于沃爾巴克氏體會影響昆蟲和蜘蛛的細胞，作者認為這些基因或許能幫助病毒潛入動物細胞，以到達細菌細胞。

由于這些基因具有真核特征，且在動物中分布，它們在被病毒囊括前很可能起源于動物，但動物和病毒間DNA傳遞的路徑和方向仍不明確。

原文鏈接：

Eukaryotic association module in phage WO genomes from Wolbachia

原文摘要：

Viruses are trifurcated into eukaryotic, archaeal and bacterial categories. This domain-specific ecology underscores why eukaryotic viruses typically co-opt eukaryotic genes and bacteriophages commonly harbour bacterial genes. However, the presence of bacteriophages in obligate intracellular bacteria of eukaryotes may promote DNA transfers between eukaryotes and bacteriophages. Here we report a metagenomic analysis of purified bacteriophage WO particles of Wolbachia and uncover a eukaryotic association module in the complete WO genome. It harbours predicted domains, such as the black widow latrotoxin C-terminal domain, that are uninterrupted in bacteriophage genomes, enriched with eukaryotic protease cleavage sites and combined with additional domains to forge one of the largest bacteriophage genes to date (14,256?bp). To the best of our knowledge, these eukaryotic-like domains have never before been reported in packaged bacteriophages and their phylogeny, distribution and sequence diversity imply lateral transfers between bacteriophage/prophage and animal genomes. Finally, the WO genome sequences and identification of attachment sites will potentially advance genetic manipulation of Wolbachia.