The Bacteriophage pEp_SNUABM_08 Is a Novel Singleton Siphovirus with High Host Specificity for Erwinia pyrifoliae

Abstract

Species belonging to the genus Erwinia are predominantly plant pathogens. A number of bacteriophages capable of infecting Erwinia have been used for the control of plant diseases such as fire blight. Public repositories provide the complete genome information for such phages, which includes genomes ranging from 30 kb to 350 kb in size. However, limited information is available regarding bacteriophages belonging to the family Siphoviridae. A novel lytic siphophage, pEp_SNUABM_08, which specifically infects Erwinia pyrifoliae, was isolated from the soil of an affected apple orchard in South Korea. A comprehensive genome analysis was performed using the Erwinia-infecting siphophage. The whole genome of pEp_SNUABM_08 comprised 62,784 bp (GC content, 57.24%) with 79 open reading frames. The genomic characteristics confirmed that pEp_SNUABM_08 is a singleton lytic bacteriophage belonging to the family Siphoviridae, and no closely related phages have been reported thus far. Our study not only characterized a unique phage, but also provides insight into the genetic diversity of Erwinia bacteriophages.

Biological and Genetic Characterizations of a Novel Lytic ΦFifi106 against Indigenous Erwinia amylovora and Evaluation of the Control of Fire Blight in Apple Plants

“…From the TEM image ( Figure 1 ), the phage possessed an icosahedral head with length and width of 79.8 ± 4.3 nm and 74.2 ± 2.1 nm, respectively, and a tail length of 114.1 ± 5.2 nm. The purified phage belonged to a myophage group within the class Caudoviricetes , as it possessed a rigid and contractile tail by comparison with other reported studies on myophages [ 10 , 32 , 33 ] and siphophages [ 34 , 35 ].…”

Isolation and Characterization of a Lytic Bacteriophage RH-42-1 of Erwinia amylovora from Orchard Soil in China

“…Different bacteriophages have different latent periods, burst times, and burst sizes. Kim et al [ 34 ] isolated the fire blight bacteriophage pEp_SNUABM_08, which has a latent period of 40 min and a burst size of 20 phages. Akremi et al [ 14 ] isolated the fire blight bacteriophage PEar 6, which has a latent period of 20 min, a rising burst period of 25 min, and a burst size of about 280 PFU/cell.…”

Optimizing the formulation of Erwinia bacteriophages for improved UV stability and adsorption on apple leaves

“…After amplifying the phages using the double agar overlay plaque assay described in a previous publication [ 69 ], the top agar layer containing the phages was mixed with an SM buffer was incubated at 27 °C for 24 h. The resulting phage solution was then centrifuged at 12,000× g for 10 min, and the supernatant was mixed with 10 % (w/v) polyethylene glycol/0.5 M NaCl (final concentration) to precipitate the phages. Cesium chloride (CsCl) density gradient centrifugation was used to purify the phage particles [ 70 ]. The phage samples were ultracentrifuged for 3 h at 50,000× g using a Type 70 Ti fixed-angle titanium rotor (Beckman, Brea, CA, USA), and the resulting phage bands were collected.…”