Characterization and Diversity of Klebsiella pneumoniae Prophages

Abstract

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a common human commensal and opportunistic pathogen. In recent years, the clinical isolation and resistance rates of K. pneumoniae have shown a yearly increase, leading to a special interest in mobile genetic elements. Prophages are a representative class of mobile genetic elements that can carry host-friendly genes, transfer horizontally between strains, and coevolve with the host’s genome. In this study, we identified 15,946 prophages from the genomes of 1437 fully assembled K. pneumoniae deposited in the NCBI database, with 9755 prophages on chromosomes and 6191 prophages on plasmids. We found prophages to be notably diverse and widely disseminated in the K. pneumoniae genomes. The K. pneumoniae prophages encoded multiple putative virulence factors and antibiotic resistance genes. The comparison of strain types with prophage types suggests that the two may be related. The differences in GC content between the same type of prophages and the genomic region in which they were located indicates the alien properties of the prophages. The overall distribution of GC content suggests that prophages integrated on chromosomes and plasmids may have different evolutionary characteristics. These results suggest a high prevalence of prophages in the K. pneumoniae genome and highlight the effect of prophages on strain characterization.