A68 Characterization and comparative genomic analysis of two Bacillus megaterium lytic bacteriophages

Next-generation sequencing technologies provide unique possibilities for the comprehensive assessment of the environmental diversity of bacteriophages. Many Bacillus bacteriophages have been isolated, but very few Bacillus megaterium bacteriophages have been characterized. Here, we describe biological characteristics and whole-genome sequences and their annotations for two new isolates of the B. megaterium bacteriophages (BM5 and BM10), isolated from Egyptian soil samples and representing two different groups according to their host range and amplified fragment length polymorphism profiles. Both phages have been displaying different thermal inactivation points (82 and 78 °C) and pH tolerance range (5–9.2 and 5–8.4 pH) while having the same longevity in vitro (192 h). Electron microscopy observation has proved that both phages belonged to the Myoviridiae family. Furthermore, growth analyses indicated that phages BM5 and BM10 have a shorter latent period (20 and 25 min) and smaller burst size (103 and 117 PFU) than is typical for Bacillus phages. The genome sizes of phages BM5 and BM10 were 165,031 bp and 165,213 bp, respectively, with a modular organization. Bioinformatic analyses of BM5 and BM10 genomes enabled assignments of putative functions to 97 and 65 putative ORFs, respectively. Comparative analysis of BM5 and BM10 genome structures with other B. megaterium bacteriophages revealed relatively high levels of sequence and organizational identity. Both genomic comparisons and phylogenetic analyses support the conclusion that the sequenced phages (BM5 and BM10) belong to different sub-clusters (L5 and L7) within L cluster and display different lifestyles (lysogenic and lytic). Sequenced phages encode proteins associated with Bacillus pathogenesis. BM5 does not contain any tRNA sequences, while BM10 genome codes for 17 tRNAs.