TY - JOUR

T1 - StenM_174: A Novel Podophage That Infects a Wide Range of Stenotrophomonas spp. and Suggests a New Subfamily in the Family Autographiviridae

AU - Morozova, Vera V

AU - Yakubovskij, Vyacheslav I

AU - Baykov, Ivan K

AU - Kozlova, Yuliya N

AU - Tikunov, Artem Yu

AU - Babkin, Igor V

AU - Bardasheva, Alevtina V

AU - Zhirakovskaya, Elena V

AU - Tikunova, Nina V

N1 - This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under Project Grant No. 075-15-2021-1085.

PY - 2024/1

Y1 - 2024/1

N2 - Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was discovered as a soil bacterium associated with the rhizosphere. Later, S. maltophilia was found to be a multidrug-resistant hospital-associated pathogen. Lytic bacteriophages are prospective antimicrobials; therefore, there is a need for the isolation and characterization of new Stenotrophomonas phages. The phage StenM_174 was isolated from litter at a poultry farm using a clinical strain of S. maltophilia as the host. StenM_174 reproduced in a wide range of clinical and environmental strains of Stenotrophomonas, mainly S. maltophilia, and it had a podovirus morphotype. The length of the genomic sequence of StenM_174 was 42,956 bp, and it contained 52 putative genes. All genes were unidirectional, and 31 of them encoded proteins with predicted functions, while the remaining 21 were identified as hypothetical ones. Two tail spike proteins of StenM_174 were predicted using AlphaFold2 structural modeling. A comparative analysis of the genome shows that the Stenotrophomonas phage StenM_174, along with the phages Ponderosa, Pepon, Ptah, and TS-10, can be members of the new putative genus Ponderosavirus in the Autographiviridae family. In addition, the analyzed data suggest a new subfamily within this family.

AB - Stenotrophomonas maltophilia was discovered as a soil bacterium associated with the rhizosphere. Later, S. maltophilia was found to be a multidrug-resistant hospital-associated pathogen. Lytic bacteriophages are prospective antimicrobials; therefore, there is a need for the isolation and characterization of new Stenotrophomonas phages. The phage StenM_174 was isolated from litter at a poultry farm using a clinical strain of S. maltophilia as the host. StenM_174 reproduced in a wide range of clinical and environmental strains of Stenotrophomonas, mainly S. maltophilia, and it had a podovirus morphotype. The length of the genomic sequence of StenM_174 was 42,956 bp, and it contained 52 putative genes. All genes were unidirectional, and 31 of them encoded proteins with predicted functions, while the remaining 21 were identified as hypothetical ones. Two tail spike proteins of StenM_174 were predicted using AlphaFold2 structural modeling. A comparative analysis of the genome shows that the Stenotrophomonas phage StenM_174, along with the phages Ponderosa, Pepon, Ptah, and TS-10, can be members of the new putative genus Ponderosavirus in the Autographiviridae family. In addition, the analyzed data suggest a new subfamily within this family.

KW - Stenotrophomonas/genetics

KW - Prospective Studies

KW - Bacteriophages

KW - Caudovirales/genetics

KW - Stenotrophomonas maltophilia/genetics

KW - Genome, Viral

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85183755773&origin=inward&txGid=28d7fa4fae9e3f563996e43fa6179a6b

U2 - 10.3390/v16010018

DO - 10.3390/v16010018

M3 - Article

C2 - 38275953

VL - 16

JO - Viruses

JF - Viruses

SN - 1999-4915

IS - 1

M1 - 18

ER -