TY - JOUR AU - Glickman, Cody AU - Kammlade, Sara M. AU - Hasan, Nabeeh A. AU - Epperson, L. Elaine AU - Davidson, Rebecca M. AU - Strong, Michael PY - 2020 DA - 2020/08/17 TI - Characterization of integrated prophages within diverse species of clinical nontuberculous mycobacteria JO - Virology Journal SP - 124 VL - 17 IS - 1 AB - Nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) infections are increasing in prevalence, with current estimates suggesting that over 100,000 people in the United States are affected each year. It is unclear how certain species of mycobacteria transition from environmental bacteria to clinical pathogens, or what genetic elements influence the differences in virulence among strains of the same species. A potential mechanism of genetic evolution and diversity within mycobacteria is the presence of integrated viruses called prophages in the host genome. Prophages may act as carriers of bacterial genes, with the potential of altering bacterial fitness through horizontal gene transfer. In this study, we quantify the frequency and composition of prophages within mycobacteria isolated from clinical samples and compare them against the composition of PhagesDB, an environmental mycobacteriophage database. SN - 1743-422X UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s12985-020-01394-y DO - 10.1186/s12985-020-01394-y ID - Glickman2020 ER -