Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 28, 2026

Detection of Horizontal Gene Transfer Mediated by Natural Conjugative Plasmids in E. coli
06:56

Detection of Horizontal Gene Transfer Mediated by Natural Conjugative Plasmids in E. coli

Published on: March 24, 2023

7.1K

A distinct class of conjugative megaplasmids includes potential vehicles for prophage dissemination

Ling Yuan1, Yiting Qin1, Jacob West-Roberts2

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Advanced Environmental Technology, the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.

Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|February 27, 2026
PubMed

Insights

Conjugative megaplasmids called Hodors spread prophages across diverse gut bacteria. This mechanism explains how related prophages widely distribute among distant bacterial species, decoupling infection from lysogeny.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Genetics
  • Genomics

Background:

  • Closely related prophages are found in diverse human gut bacteria, but the dissemination mechanism is unclear.
  • Limited evidence exists for productive phage infections across broad bacterial host ranges.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify a mechanism for the widespread distribution of prophages in the human gut microbiome.
  • To investigate the role of mobile genetic elements in prophage dissemination.

Main Methods:

  • Description of two novel conjugative megaplasmid groups (Hodors) in the human gut microbiome.
  • Analysis of Hodor genetic content, including prophage genomes and surface-associated genes.
  • Detection of Hodor-associated prophages as extracellular particles and assessment of their transcriptional activity.

Main Results:

  • Two distinct, deeply diverged conjugative megaplasmid groups, termed Hodors, were identified.
  • Hodors harbor complete prophage genomes and are found across distant Bacillota lineages (Bacilli and Clostridia).
  • Hodor-associated prophages can be extracellular and are transcriptionally active.

Conclusions:

  • Conjugative megaplasmids (Hodors) act as mobile platforms for prophage dissemination.
  • This mechanism explains the widespread occurrence of related prophages in phylogenetically distant gut bacteria.
  • Prophage dissemination via Hodors decouples lysogenic host range from infective host range.
Keywords:
Conjugative transferHuman gutLysogenyMetagenomicsPlasmidProphage

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