Insertion of host DNA into PVL-encoding phages of the Staphylococcus aureus lineage ST80 by intra-chromosomal recombination

Abstract

Temperate bacteriophages play a critical role in the pathogenicity of the human pathogen Staphylococcus aureus by mediating positive lysogenic conversion for different virulence factors such as Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) or by interrupting chromosomal virulence genes. PVL-encoding phages are integrated in the S. aureus genome within a conserved ORF which is surrounded by a cluster of tandemly repeated genes. Here we demonstrate that in S. aureus clonal complex ST80 strains PVL-phage induction led to the acquisition of host DNA into the phage genome probably due to a homologous recombination event between direct repeats of the two paralogous genes adjacent to the phage integration site. Phage excision was accompanied by an additional chromosomal deletion in this region. This so far unrecognized mechanism of DNA uptake into the phage genome may play an important role in the co-evolution of phages and bacteria.