State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China.
College of Marine Science and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
Viruses. 2021 May 26;13(6):987. doi: 10.3390/v13060987.
Bacteriophages substantially contribute to bacterial mortality in the ocean and play critical roles in global biogeochemical processes. is a ubiquitous bacterial genus in global tropical and temperate waters, which can cross-protect marine cyanobacteria and thus has important ecological benefits. However, little is known about the biological and ecological features of phages (alterophages). Here, we describe a novel alterophage vB_AmeP-R8W (R8W), which belongs to the family and infects the deep-clade . R8W has an equidistant and icosahedral head (65 ± 1 nm in diameter) and a short tail (12 ± 2 nm in length). The genome size of R8W is 48,825 bp, with a G + C content of 40.55%. R8W possesses three putative auxiliary metabolic genes encoding proteins involved in nucleotide metabolism and DNA binding: thymidylate synthase, nucleoside triphosphate pyrophosphohydrolase, and PhoB. R8W has a rapid lytic cycle with a burst size of 88 plaque-forming units/cell. Notably, R8W has a wide host range, such that it can infect 35 strains; it exhibits a strong specificity for strains isolated from deep waters. R8W has two specific receptor binding proteins and a compatible holin-endolysin system, which contribute to its wide host range. The isolation of R8W will contribute to the understanding of alterophage evolution, as well as the phage-host interactions and ecological importance of alterophages.
噬菌体在海洋中对细菌的死亡率有很大的贡献，并在全球生物地球化学过程中发挥着关键作用。是一种在全球热带和温带水域中普遍存在的细菌属，它可以交叉保护海洋蓝细菌，因此具有重要的生态效益。然而，人们对噬菌体（alterophage）的生物学和生态学特征知之甚少。在这里，我们描述了一种新型的 alterophage vB_AmeP-R8W（R8W），它属于 科，感染深海枝的 。R8W 具有等距的二十面体头部（直径 65 ± 1nm）和短尾（长度 12 ± 2nm）。R8W 的基因组大小为 48825bp，G+C 含量为 40.55%。R8W 拥有三个可能的辅助代谢基因，编码参与核苷酸代谢和 DNA 结合的蛋白质：胸苷酸合酶、核苷三磷酸焦磷酸水解酶和 PhoB。R8W 具有快速的裂解周期，爆发量为 88 个噬菌斑形成单位/细胞。值得注意的是，R8W 具有广泛的宿主范围，可以感染 35 株菌；它对来自深海的菌株表现出很强的特异性。R8W 有两个特定的受体结合蛋白和一个相容的 holin-endolysin 系统，这有助于它的广泛宿主范围。R8W 的分离将有助于了解 alterophage 的进化，以及噬菌体-宿主相互作用和 alterophages 的生态重要性。
