New tRNA-targeting transposons that hijack phage and vesicles
Institution:
1. Department of Biology, Clark University, Worcester, MA 01610, USA;1. Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;2. Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;3. Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA;4. Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA;5. Department of Computer Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA;6. Department of Statistics & Data Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA;1. Program in Epithelial Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;2. Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;3. Graduate Program in Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;4. Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA;5. Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System, Palo Alto, CA, USA;1. Dalhousie University, Department of Biology, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada;2. Universidade de Campinas, Departamento de Genética, Evolução, Microbiologia e Imunologia, Campinas, SP, Brasil;1. Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia;2. Evolution of Cultural Diversity Initiative, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia;3. Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI) Eye and Vision, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Adelaide, Australia;4. Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA;1. State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, PR China;2. Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, College of Informatics, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, PR China;1. Institute of Human Biology and Evolution, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 6, 61-614 Poznań, Poland
Abstract:
Genomic islands are hotspots for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in bacteria, but, for Prochlorococcus, an abundant marine cyanobacterium, how these islands form has puzzled scientists. With the discovery of tycheposons, a new family of transposons, Hackl et al. provide evidence for elegant new mechanisms of gene rearrangement and transfer among Prochlorococcus and bacteria more broadly.
