Paving the Way to Unveil the Diversity and Evolution of Phage Genomes

Abstract

Phage biology has been developing for the last hundred years, and the potential of phages as tools and treatments has been known since their early discovery. However, the lack of knowledge of the molecular mechanisms coded in phage genomes hindered the development of the field. With current molecular methods, the last decade has been a resurgence of the field. The Special Issue on “Diversity and Evolution of Phage Genomes” is a great example with its 17 manuscripts published. It covers some of the latest methods to sample and characterize environmental and host associated viromes, considering experimental biases and computational developments. Furthermore, the use of molecular tools coupled with traditional methods has allowed to isolate and characterize viruses from different hosts and environments with such diversity that even a new viral class is being proposed. The viruses described cover all different phage families and lifestyles. However, is not only about diversity; the molecular evolution is studied in a set of manuscripts looking at phage-host interactions and their capacity to uncover the frequency and type of mutations behind the bacterial resistance mechanisms and viral pathogenesis, and such methods are opening new ways into identifying potential receptors and characterizing the bacterial host range.

Genomic characterization of a new phage BUCT541 against Klebsiella pneumoniae K1-ST23 and efficacy assessment in mouse and Galleria mellonella larvae

“…The phylogenetic tree based on the complete genomes of BUCT541 and related phages showed that BUCT541 shared the closest evolutionary relationship with the K. pneumoniae phage vB_KpnS_ZX4 (GenBank: NC_054654.1), and also had a close evolutionary relationship with Vibrio phage pYD38-A (GenBank: JF974312.1) and Aeromonas phage pIS4-A (GenBank: NC_042037.1). These results demonstrate the genetic diversity of BUCT541 and provide further information for exploring the genomic evolution of phages (Hatfull and Hendrix, 2011;Reyes and Vives, 2020). ORF 69 of phage BUCT541 was annotated as lysozyme which has a conserved structure and function (Baase et al, 2010).…”