Open AccessInterplay Between Bacteriophages and Restriction-Modification Systems in Enterococci
Author(s) -
Peter Pristaš,
Anna Vandžurová,
P. Javorský
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
nova biotechnologica et chimica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.212
H-Index - 9
eISSN - 1339-004X
pISSN - 1338-6905
DOI - 10.2478/nbec-2014-0002
Subject(s) - palindrome , genome , bacteriophage , enterococcus faecalis , genetics , palindromic sequence , dna , biology , restriction enzyme , bacterial genome size , escherichia coli , gene
The complete genomes of Enterococcus faecalis bacteriophages were analyzed for tetranucleotide words avoidance. Very similar tetranucleotide composition was found in all tested genomes with strong underrepresentation of palindromic GATC and GGCC words. This avoidance could be explained as a protection mechanism against host restriction-modification systems as a clear correlation was found between avoidance of palindromic words and the specificity of E. faecalis restriction and modification systems. No similar avoidance of tetranucleotide words was observed for non-palindromic words. A weak correlation was observed between avoidance of tetranucleotide palindromes in bacteriophage genomes and the possession of phage encoded DNA methyltransferases confirming the interrelation between bacteriophage genomes composition and restriction and modification systems in enterococc