Isolation and characterization of <i>Septuagintavirus</i> ; a novel clade of <i>Escherichia coli</i> phages within the subfamily <i>Vequintavirinae</i>
<i>Escherichia coli</i> is a well-known bacterium that inhabits diverse ecological niches, including the mammalian gut microbiota. Certain strains are associated with gastrointestinal diseases, and there is a growing interest in using bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria, to combat bacterial infections. Here, we describe the isolation and characterization of four novel <i>E. coli</i> bacteriophages that constitute a new genus, <i>Septuagintavirus</i>, within the subfamily <i>Vequintavirinae</i>. We conducted mass spectrometry on virions of a representative phage of this novel clade and compared it to other phages within the subfamily. Our analysis shows that virion structure is highly conserved among all phages, except for proteins related to tail fiber structures implicated in the host range. These findings provide greater insights into the phages of the subfamily <i>Vequintavirinae</i>, contributing to the existing pool of knowledge about these phages.
Authors
- Lorraine A. Draper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6910-9317)
- Andrey N. Shkoporov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5547-8672)
- Colin Buttimer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-8902)
- Katharina Höfer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7472-9887)
- Adrián Cortés‐Martín (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5542-4984)
- Colin Hill (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8527-1445)
- R. Paul Ross (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4876-8839)
- Nadiia Pozhydaieva (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2468-4235)
- Charles M. A. P. Franz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9726-1845)
- Hiba Shareefdeen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4556-9714)
- Andrei Sorin Bolocan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5865-6358)
- Frank Hille (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6244-7947)
Institutions
- University College Cork (IE)
- APC Microbiome Institute (IE)
- Loewe Center for Synthetic Microbiology (DE)
- Max Rubner Institut (DE)
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Microbiology Spectrum
- Published
- 2024-08-05
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1128/spectrum.00592-24
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Bacteriophages and microbial interactions
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.92
Funders
- Science Foundation Ireland
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
- Janssen Biotech