ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Phage Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1592355
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Phage Applications: Deciphering Phage Biological and Ecological Mechanisms through MetagenomicsView all articles
Two Novel Phages Infecting Erythrobacter sp. JL475 Isolated from the Epipelagic OceanIsolation and Characterization of One Erythrobacter Phage, Representing a New Genus with High Distribution in Epipelagic Ocean
Provisionally accepted
- 1Fourth Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Beihai, China
- 2Tongji University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
- 3Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
- 4Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China
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Erythrobacter, an aerobic anoxygenic photoheterotrophic bacterial genus, plays a vital role in carbon and energy cycling in marine environments. However, their phage predators remain poorly understood, with only two strains previously reported. This study isolated and characterized a novel Erythrobacter phage, vB_EauS-R34L1 (R34L1), and its sub-strain vB_EauS-R34L2 (R34L2), from coastal seawater. Both phages exhibit long-tailed, icosahedral morphologies and relatively narrow but slightly different host ranges. One-step growth curve analysis revealed a 160-min latent period and burst sizes of 81 and 91 PFU/cell for R34L1 and R34L2, respectively. Genomic analysis showed that the phages possess dsDNA genomes of 56,415 bp (R34L1) and 54,924 bp (R34L2), with G+C contents of 61.60% and 61.19%, respectively. Both phages harbor a suite of unique genes, including GapR and GH19, which are crucial for host interaction and ecological functionality. Blastn analysis indicated a 99.73% genome similarity between them. Taxonomic and phylogenetic analyses positioned them in a novel viral genus cluster, Eausmariqdvirus, under the family Casjensviridae, indicating a distant evolutionary relationship with known phages. Metagenomic queries suggested that R34L1-and R34L2-like phages are exclusively abundant in temperate and tropical epipelagic zones. This study expands our understanding of Erythrobacter phages and provides insights into their ecological roles in marine ecosystems.
Keywords: Bacteriophage, Erythrobacter, Biological features, Genome, new genus
Received: 14 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lu, Wei, Jiao, Zhang, Li and Yunlan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xuejing Li, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
Yang Yunlan, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, Guangdong Province, China
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