{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,29]],"date-time":"2026-09-29T02:19:06Z","timestamp":1790648346915,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"24","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]],"date-time":"2021-12-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1639440000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The virome associated with the corkscrew shaped bacterium Leptospira, responsible for Weil\u2019s disease, is scarcely known, and genetic tools available for these bacteria remain limited. To reduce these two issues, potential transposable prophages were searched in Leptospiraceae genomes. The 236 predicted transposable prophages were particularly abundant in the most pathogenic leptospiral clade, being potentially involved in the acquisition of virulent traits. According to genomic similarities and phylogenies, these prophages are distantly related to known transposable phages and are organized into six groups, one of them encompassing prophages with unusual TA-TA ends. Interestingly, structural and transposition proteins reconstruct different relationships between groups, suggesting ancestral recombinations. Based on the baseplate phylogeny, two large clades emerge, with specific gene-contents and high sequence divergence reflecting their ancient origin. Despite their high divergence, the size and overall genomic organization of all prophages are very conserved, a testimony to the highly constrained nature of their genomes. Finally, similarities between these prophages and the three known non-transposable phages infecting L. biflexa, suggest gene transfer between different Caudovirales inside their leptospiral host, and the possibility to use some of the transposable prophages in that model strain.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms222413434","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]],"date-time":"2021-12-14T22:06:10Z","timestamp":1639519570000},"page":"13434","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Transposable Prophages in Leptospira: An Ancient, Now Diverse, Group Predominant in Causative Agents of Weil\u2019s Disease"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"22","author":[{"given":"Eric","family":"Olo Ndela","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire Microorganismes: Genome Environment (LMGE), Universit\u00e9 Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Fran\u00e7ois","family":"Enault","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratoire Microorganismes: Genome Environment (LMGE), Universit\u00e9 Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, F-63000 Clermont-Ferrand, France"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ariane","family":"Toussaint","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Microbiologie Cellulaire et Mol\u00e9culaire, Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles, IBMM-DBM, 12 Rue des Professeurs Jeneer et Brachet, B-6041 Gosselies, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"209","article-title":"\u201c\u00dcber eine eigenth\u00fcmliche, mit Milztumor, Icterus und Nephritis einhergehende, acute Infektionskrankheit\u201d [On a strange, acute infectious disease, accompanied by swelling of the spleen, icterus, and nephritis]","volume":"39","author":"Ziemssen","year":"1886","journal-title":"Deutsches Archiv f\u00fcr Klinische Medizin"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Costa, F., Hagan, J.E., Calcagno, J., Kane, M., Torgerson, P., Martinez-Silveira, M.S., Stein, C., Abela-Ridder, B., and Ko, A.I. 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