Genome Organization of Escherichia Phage YD-2008.s: A New Entry to Siphoviridae Family

Malaysia is one of the countries that are loaded with mega biodiversity which includes microbial communities. Phages constitute the major component in the microbial communities and yet the numbers of discovered phages are just a minute fraction of its population in the biosphere. Taking into account of a huge numbers of waiting to be discovered phages, a new bacteriophage designated as Escherichia phage YD-2008.s was successfully isolated using Escherichia coli ATCC 11303 as the host. Phage YD-2008.s poses icosahedral head measured at 57nm in diameter with a long non-contractile flexible tail measured at 107nm; proving the phage as one of the members of Siphoviridae family under the order of Caudovirales. Genomic sequence analyses revealed phage YD-2008.s genome as linear dsDNA of 44,613 base pairs with 54.6% G+C content. Sixty-two open reading frames (ORFs) were identified on phage YD-2008.s full genome, using bioinformatics annotation software; Rapid Annotation using Subsystem Technology (RAST). Among the ORFs, twenty-eight of them code for functional proteins. Thirty two are classified as hypothetical proteins and there are two unidentified proteins. Even though majority of the coded putative proteins have high amino acids similarities to phages from the genus Hk578likevirus of the Siphoviridae family, yet phage YD-2008.s stands with its’ own distinctiveness. Therefore, this is another new finding to Siphoviridae family as well as to the growing list of viruses in International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) database.