Isolation and characterization of Hena1 – a novelErwinia amylovorabacteriophage

Abstract

Fire blight, caused by plant pathogenic bacterium Erwinia amylovora, is one of the most important diseases of Rosaceae plants. Due to the lack of effective control measures, fire blight infections pose a recurrent threat on agricultural production worldwide. Recently, bacterial viruses, or bacteriophages, have been proposed as environmentally friendly natural antimicrobial agents for fire blight control. Here, we isolated a novel bacteriophage Hena1 with activity against E. amylovora. Further analysis revealed that Hena1 is a narrow-host-range lytic phage belonging to Myoviridae family. Its genome consists of a linear 148,842 bp dsDNA (48.42% GC content) encoding 240 ORFs and 23 tRNA genes. Based on virion structure and genomic composition, Hena1 was classified as a new species of bacteriophage subfamily Vequintavirinae. The comprehensive analysis of Hena1 genome may provide further insights into evolution of bacteriophages infecting plant pathogenic bacteria.

Two novel Erwinia amylovora bacteriophages, Loshitsa2 and Micant, isolated in Belarus

“…Previously, two E. amylovora bacteriophages were isolated in Belarus -Hena1 belonging to the Vequintavirinae subfamily (NCBI:txid2678601) and phiEa2809 of the Ackermannviridae family (NCBI:txid1564096) [20,21]. Here, we announce the genome sequences of two newly isolated E. amylovora podoviruses Loshitsa2 and Micant -novel representatives of the Autographiviridae family .…”

Isolation of Nine Bacteriophages Shown Effective against Erwinia amylovora in Korea

“…Erwinia phages reported so far can be divided into two groups according to the host range. The first is a group with a narrow host range specific to E. amylovora , such as Pea1, 2, 5, and Hena1 ( Besarab et al, 2020 ; Ritchie and Klos, 1977 ). The second group includes phages with a wide host range, including the Pantoea species.…”

Spontaneous Resistance of Erwinia amylovora Against Bacteriophage Y2 Affects Infectivity of Multiple Phages

“…Different combinations of these phages were shown to have the potential to control bacterial cell counts over a prolonged time ( Born et al, 2011 ; Knecht et al, 2018 ). However, the diversity of bacteriophages infecting E. amylovora is much greater and novel phages have been described recently ( Thompson et al, 2019 ; Akremi et al, 2020 ; Besarab et al, 2020 ; Kim et al, 2020 ).…”