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Novel giant siphovirus from Bacillus anthracis features unusual genome characteristics.

  • Ganz HH University of California, Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
  • Law C University of California, Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
  • Schmuki M Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Eichenseher F Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Calendar R University of California, Berkeley, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Berkeley, California, United States of America.
  • Loessner MJ Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
  • Getz WM University of California, Berkeley, Department of Environmental Science, Policy & Management, Berkeley, California, United States of America ; School of Mathematical Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa.
  • Korlach J Pacific Biosciences, Menlo Park, California, United States of America.
  • Beyer W University of Hohenheim, Institute of Environmental and Animal Hygiene, Stuttgart, Germany.
  • Klumpp J Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
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  • 2014-01-30
Published in:
  • PloS one. - 2014
Animals
Bacillus anthracis
Base Sequence
Bayes Theorem
Demography
Endopeptidases
Equidae
Genome, Viral
Models, Genetic
Molecular Sequence Data
Namibia
Phylogeny
Sequence Analysis, DNA
Siphoviridae
Soil Microbiology
Species Specificity
English Here we present vB_BanS-Tsamsa, a novel temperate phage isolated from Bacillus anthracis, the agent responsible for anthrax infections in wildlife, livestock and humans. Tsamsa phage is a giant siphovirus (order Caudovirales), featuring a long, flexible and non-contractile tail of 440 nm (not including baseplate structure) and an isometric head of 82 nm in diameter. We induced Tsamsa phage in samples from two different carcass sites in Etosha National Park, Namibia. The Tsamsa phage genome is the largest sequenced Bacillus siphovirus, containing 168,876 bp and 272 ORFs. The genome features an integrase/recombinase enzyme, indicative of a temperate lifestyle. Among bacterial strains tested, the phage infected only certain members of the Bacillus cereus sensu lato group (B. anthracis, B. cereus and B. thuringiensis) and exhibited moderate specificity for B. anthracis. Tsamsa lysed seven out of 25 B. cereus strains, two out of five B. thuringiensis strains and six out of seven B. anthracis strains tested. It did not lyse B. anthracis PAK-1, an atypical strain that is also resistant to both gamma phage and cherry phage. The Tsamsa endolysin features a broader lytic spectrum than the phage host range, indicating possible use of the enzyme in Bacillus biocontrol.
Language
  • English
Open access status
gold
Identifiers
Persistent URL
https://sonar.rero.ch/global/documents/223225
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