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Desmecht S, Latka A, Ceyssens PJ, Garcia-Pino A, Gillis A, Lavigne R, Lima-Mendez G, Matthijnssens J, Vázquez R, Venneman J, Wagemans J, Briers Y, Thiry D. Meeting Report of the Second Symposium of the Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes and Launch of the Phage Valley. Viruses 2024; 16:299. [PMID: 38400074 PMCID: PMC10891784 DOI: 10.3390/v16020299] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/07/2024] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
The second symposium of the Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes (BSVoM) took place on 8 September 2023 at the University of Liège with 141 participants from 10 countries. The meeting program covered three thematic sessions opened by international keynote speakers: two sessions were devoted to "Fundamental research in phage ecology and biology" and the third one to the "Present and future applications of phages". During this one day symposium, four invited keynote lectures, nine selected talks and eight student pitches were given along with thirty presented posters. The president of the Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes, Prof. Yves Briers, took advantage of this symposium to launch the Phage Valley concept that will put the spotlight on the exceptionally high density of researchers investigating viruses of microbes as well as the successful triple helix approach between academia, industry and government in Belgium.
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Affiliation(s)
- Salomé Desmecht
- Veterinary Bacteriology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals and Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège (ULiège), 4000 Liège, Belgium;
| | - Agnieszka Latka
- Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Ghent (UGent), 9000 Gent, Belgium; (A.L.); (R.V.)
- Department of Pathogen Biology and Immunology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Wroclaw, 51-148 Wroclaw, Poland
| | | | - Abel Garcia-Pino
- Cellular and Molecular Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 1050 Brussels, Belgium;
| | - Annika Gillis
- Laboratory of Food and Environmental Microbiology, Earth and Life Institute, Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;
| | - Rob Lavigne
- Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; (R.L.); (J.W.)
| | - Gipsi Lima-Mendez
- Biology of Microorganisms Research Unit (URBM), Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences (NARILIS), University of Namur (UNamur), 5000 Namur, Belgium;
| | - Jelle Matthijnssens
- Laboratory of Viral Metagenomics, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, Rega Institute, Division of Clinical and Epidemiological Virology, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium;
| | - Roberto Vázquez
- Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Ghent (UGent), 9000 Gent, Belgium; (A.L.); (R.V.)
| | - Jolien Venneman
- Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), 9820 Merelbeke, Belgium;
| | - Jeroen Wagemans
- Laboratory of Gene Technology, Department of Biosystems, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, KU Leuven, 3001 Leuven, Belgium; (R.L.); (J.W.)
| | - Yves Briers
- Laboratory of Applied Biotechnology, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, University of Ghent (UGent), 9000 Gent, Belgium; (A.L.); (R.V.)
| | - Damien Thiry
- Veterinary Bacteriology, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Fundamental and Applied Research for Animals and Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège (ULiège), 4000 Liège, Belgium;
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Douglas GM, Shapiro BJ. Pseudogenes act as a neutral reference for detecting selection in prokaryotic pangenomes. Nat Ecol Evol 2024; 8:304-314. [PMID: 38177690 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02268-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2023] [Accepted: 11/10/2023] [Indexed: 01/06/2024]
Abstract
A long-standing question is to what degree genetic drift and selection drive the divergence in rare accessory gene content between closely related bacteria. Rare genes, including singletons, make up a large proportion of pangenomes (all genes in a set of genomes), but it remains unclear how many such genes are adaptive, deleterious or neutral to their host genome. Estimates of species' effective population sizes (Ne) are positively associated with pangenome size and fluidity, which has independently been interpreted as evidence for both neutral and adaptive pangenome models. We hypothesized that pseudogenes, used as a neutral reference, could be used to distinguish these models. We find that most functional categories are depleted for rare pseudogenes when a genome encodes only a single intact copy of a gene family. In contrast, transposons are enriched in pseudogenes, suggesting they are mostly neutral or deleterious to the host genome. Thus, even if individual rare accessory genes vary in their effects on host fitness, we can confidently reject a model of entirely neutral or deleterious rare genes. We also define the ratio of singleton intact genes to singleton pseudogenes (si/sp) within a pangenome, compare this measure across 668 prokaryotic species and detect a signal consistent with the adaptive value of many rare accessory genes. Taken together, our work demonstrates that comparing with pseudogenes can improve inferences of the evolutionary forces driving pangenome variation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gavin M Douglas
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- McGill Genome Centre, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
| | - B Jesse Shapiro
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- McGill Genome Centre, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
- McGill Centre for Microbiome Research, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
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Inglis LK, Roach MJ, Edwards RA. Prophages: an integral but understudied component of the human microbiome. Microb Genom 2024; 10:001166. [PMID: 38264887 PMCID: PMC10868603 DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.001166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Phages integrated into a bacterial genome - called prophages - continuously monitor the vigour of the host bacteria to determine when to escape the genome and to protect their host from other phage infections, and they may provide genes that promote bacterial growth. Prophages are essential to almost all microbiomes, including the human microbiome. However, most human microbiome studies have focused on bacteria, ignoring free and integrated phages, so we know little about how these prophages affect the human microbiome. To address this gap in our knowledge, we compared the prophages identified in 14 987 bacterial genomes isolated from human body sites to characterize prophage DNA in the human microbiome. Here, we show that prophage DNA is ubiquitous, comprising on average 1-5 % of each bacterial genome. The prophage content per genome varies with the isolation site on the human body, the health of the human and whether the disease was symptomatic. The presence of prophages promotes bacterial growth and sculpts the microbiome. However, the disparities caused by prophages vary throughout the body.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura K. Inglis
- Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia
| | - Michael J. Roach
- Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia
| | - Robert A. Edwards
- Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia
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Inglis LK, Roach MJ, Edwards RA. Prophage rates in the human microbiome vary by body site and host health. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.04.539508. [PMID: 37205434 PMCID: PMC10187302 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.04.539508] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/21/2023]
Abstract
Phages integrated into a bacterial genome-called prophages-continuously monitor the health of the host bacteria to determine when to escape the genome, protect their host from other phage infections, and may provide genes that promote bacterial growth. Prophages are essential to almost all microbiomes, including the human microbiome. However, most human microbiome studies focus on bacteria, ignoring free and integrated phages, so we know little about how these prophages affect the human microbiome. We compared the prophages identified in 11,513 bacterial genomes isolated from human body sites to characterise prophage DNA in the human microbiome. Here, we show that prophage DNA comprised an average of 1-5% of each bacterial genome. The prophage content per genome varies with the isolation site on the human body, the health of the human, and whether the disease was symptomatic. The presence of prophages promotes bacterial growth and sculpts the microbiome. However, the disparities caused by prophages vary throughout the body.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura K. Inglis
- Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia
| | - Michael J. Roach
- Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia
| | - Robert A. Edwards
- Flinders Accelerator for Microbiome Exploration, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Bedford Park, SA 5042, Australia
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