Novel Siphoviridae bacteriophages infecting Bacteroides uniformis contain diversity generating retroelement

Hedžet, Stina (author), Rupnik, Maja (author), Accetto, Tomaž (author)

Intestinal phages are abundant and important components of gut microbiota, yet the isolated and characterized representatives that infect abundant gut bacteria are sparse. Here we describe the isolation of human intestinal phages infecting Bacteroides uniformis. Bacteroides is one of the most common bacterial groups in the global human gut microbiota; however, to date not many Bacteroides specific phages are known. Phages isolated in this study belong to a novel viral genus, Bacuni, within the Siphoviridae family. Their genomes encode diversity-generating retroelements (DGR), which were shown in other bacteriophages to promote phage adaptation to rapidly changing environmental conditions and to broaden their host range. Three isolated phages showed 99.83% genome identity but one of them infected a distinct B. uniformis strain. The tropism of Bacuni phages appeared to be dependent on the interplay of DGR mediated sequence variations of gene encoding putative phage fimbrial tip proteins and mutations in host genes coding for outer-membrane proteins. We found prophages with up to 85% amino acid similarity over two-thirds of the Bacuni phage genome in the B. acidifaciens and Prevotella sp. genomes. Despite the abundance of Bacteroides within the human microbiome, we found Bacuni phages only in a limited subset of published gut metagenomes.

• Language: English
• Keywords: gut, Bacteroides, virome, prophage, diversity-generating retroelement
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: 16 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 9, iss. 5, art. 892
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-135541
• UDC: 579
• ISSN on article: 2076-2607
• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9050892
• COBISS.SI-ID: 61197059
• Publication date in RUL: 18.03.2022

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Microorganisms
• Shortened title: Microorganisms
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2076-2607
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523277081

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 01.05.2021

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: mikrobiologija, bakterije, Bacteroides uniformis, Siphoviridae, bakteriofagi, črevesje, mikrobiota