<i>Geobacillus</i> Bacteriophages from Compost Heaps: Representatives of Three New Genera within Thermophilic Siphoviruses
Eugenijus Šimoliūnas,
Monika Šimoliūnienė,
Gintarė Laskevičiūtė,
Kotryna Kvederavičiūtė,
Martynas Skapas,
Algirdas Kaupinis,
Mindaugas Valius,
Rolandas Meškys,
Nomeda Kuisienė
Affiliations
Eugenijus Šimoliūnas
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Biochemistry, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Monika Šimoliūnienė
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Biochemistry, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Gintarė Laskevičiūtė
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Biochemistry, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Kotryna Kvederavičiūtė
Department of Biological DNA Modification, Institute of Biotechnology, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Martynas Skapas
Department of Characterisation of Materials Structure, Center for Physical Sciences and Technology, Sauletekio Av. 3, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Algirdas Kaupinis
Proteomics Centre, Institute of Biochemistry, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Mindaugas Valius
Proteomics Centre, Institute of Biochemistry, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Rolandas Meškys
Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Biochemistry, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
Nomeda Kuisienė
Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Institute of Bioscience, Life Sciences Center, Vilnius University, Saulėtekio Av. 7, LT-10257 Vilnius, Lithuania
We report a detailed characterization of five thermophilic bacteriophages (phages) that were isolated from compost heaps in Vilnius, Lithuania using Geobacillus thermodenitrificans strains as the hosts for phage propagation. The efficiency of plating experiments revealed that phages formed plaques from 45 to 80 °C. Furthermore, most of the phages formed plaques surrounded by halo zones, indicating the presence of phage-encoded bacterial exopolysaccharide (EPS)-degrading depolymerases. Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed that all phages were siphoviruses characterized by an isometric head (from ~63 nm to ~67 nm in diameter) and a non-contractile flexible tail (from ~137 nm to ~150 nm in length). The genome sequencing resulted in genomes ranging from 38,161 to 39,016 bp. Comparative genomic and phylogenetic analysis revealed that all the isolated phages had no close relatives to date, and potentially represent three new genera within siphoviruses. The results of this study not only improve our knowledge about poorly explored thermophilic bacteriophages but also give new insights for further investigation of thermophilic and/or thermostable enzymes of bacterial viruses.
