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Characteristics of phage-plasmids and their impact on microbial communities
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Researchers reviewed phage-plasmids, a class of genetic elements that share characteristics of both bacteriophages and plasmids, finding that these hybrid elements play an underappreciated role in shaping microbial community structure, gene transfer, and bacterial evolution.
Bacteria host various foreign genetic elements, most notably plasmids and bacteriophages (or phages). Historically, these two classes were seen as separate, but recent research has shown considerable interplay between them. Phage-plasmids (P-Ps) exhibit characteristics of both phages and plasmids, allowing them to exist extrachromosomally within bacterial hosts as plasmids, but also to infect and lyse bacteria as phages. This dual functionality enables P-Ps to utilize the modes of transmission of both phage and plasmids, facilitating the rapid dissemination of genetic material, including antibiotic resistance and virulence genes, throughout bacterial populations. Additionally, P-Ps have been found to encode toxin-antitoxin and CRISPR-Cas adaptive immune systems, which enhance bacterial survival under stress and provide immunity against other foreign genetic elements. Despite a growing body of literature on P-Ps, large gaps remain in our understanding of their ecological roles and environmental prevalence. This review aims to synthesise existing knowledge and identify research gaps on the impacts of P-Ps on microbial communities.
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Microplastics ofBroad Size Range Reduce BacteriophageActivity in Aqueous Environments
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Microplastics across a broad size range (1–300 μm) were found to adsorb bacteriophages and reduce their infectivity in aqueous environments, suggesting that microplastic pollution could disrupt phage-mediated regulation of bacterial communities. (Duplicate record of ID 11205.)
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Researchers discovered that microplastics can aggregate with bacteriophages in aquatic environments, reducing the number of active phages and potentially disrupting the natural balance of bacterial population control that relies on these viruses.
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Researchers used metagenomics to show that micro- and nanoplastics in sewage digesters enrich antibiotic resistance genes by up to 18% and promote the spread of those genes via plasmid transfer, while simultaneously finding that phage viruses — stimulated by plastic stress — kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria and partially offset that resistance buildup.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.