title: A virulent phage infecting Lactococcus garvieae, with homology to Lactococcus lactis phages.
abstract: A new virulent phage belonging to the Siphoviridae family and able to infect Lactococcus garvieae strains was isolated from compost soil. Phage GE1 has a prolate capsid (56 by 38 nm) and a long noncontractile tail (123 nm). It had a burst size of 139 and a latent period of 31 min. Its host range was limited to only two L. garvieae strains out of 73 tested. Phage GE1 has a double-stranded DNA genome of 24,847 bp containing 48 predicted open reading frames (ORFs). Putative functions could be assigned to only 14 ORFs, and significant matches in public databases were found for only 17 ORFs, indicating that GE1 is a novel phage and its genome contains several new viral genes and encodes several new viral proteins. Of these 17 ORFs, 16 were homologous to deduced proteins of virulent phages infecting the dairy bacterium Lactococcus lactis, including previously characterized prolate-headed phages. Comparative genome analysis confirmed the relatedness of L. garvieae phage GE1 to L. lactis phages c2 (22,172 bp) and Q54 (26,537 bp), although its genome organization was closer to that of phage c2. Phage GE1 did not infect any of the 58 L. lactis strains tested. This study suggests that phages infecting different lactococcal species may have a common ancestor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, Division of Food Microbiology and Bioprocesses, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Eraclio
authors.affiliation: Félix d'Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses & GREB, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Denise M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Tremblay
authors.affiliation: Félix d'Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses & GREB, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada Département de biochimie, de microbiologie et de bio-informatique & PROTEO, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Alexia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lacelle-Côté
authors.affiliation: Félix d'Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses & GREB, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada Département de biochimie, de microbiologie et de bio-informatique & PROTEO, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada.
authors.forename: Simon J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Labrie
authors.affiliation: Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, Division of Food Microbiology and Bioprocesses, University of Milan, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Fortina
authors.affiliation: Félix d'Hérelle Reference Center for Bacterial Viruses & GREB, Faculté de Médecine Dentaire, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada Département de biochimie, de microbiologie et de bio-informatique & PROTEO, Faculté des sciences et de génie, Université Laval, Québec City, Québec, Canada Sylvain.Moineau@bcm.ulaval.ca.
authors.forename: Sylvain
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moineau
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D002213:Capsid; D036022:Capsid Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000235:genetics*; D005814:Genes, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D058507:Host Specificity; D013294:Lactococcus lactis / Q000821:virology*; D008854:Microscopy, Electron; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016366:Open Reading Frames / Q000235:genetics; D020543:Proteome / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017906:Siphoviridae / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D014771:Virion
chemical_list: D036022:Capsid Proteins; D004279:DNA, Viral; D020543:Proteome