Abstract
Achromobacter spp. are ubiquitous in nature and are increasingly being recognized as emerging nosocomial pathogens. Nevertheless, to date, only 30 complete genome sequences of Achromobacter phages are available in GenBank, and nearly all of those phages were isolated on Achromobacter xylosoxidans. Here, we report the isolation and characterization of bacteriophage vB_AchrS_AchV4. To the best of our knowledge, vB_AchrS_AchV4 is the first virus isolated from Achromobacter spanius. Both vB_AchrS_AchV4 and its host, Achromobacter spanius RL_4, were isolated in Lithuania. VB_AchrS_AchV4 is a siphovirus, since it has an isometric head (64 ± 3.2 nm in diameter) and a non-contractile flexible tail (232 ± 5.4). The genome of vB_AchrS_AchV4 is a linear dsDNA molecule of 59,489 bp with a G+C content of 62.8%. It contains no tRNA genes, yet it includes 82 protein-coding genes, of which 27 have no homologues in phages. Using bioinformatics approaches, 36 vB_AchrS_AchV4 genes were given a putative function. A further four were annotated based on the results of LC–MS/MS. Comparative analyses revealed that vB_AchrS_AchV4 is a singleton siphovirus with no close relatives among known tailed phages. In summary, this work not only describes a novel and unique phage, but also advances our knowledge of genetic diversity and evolution of Achromobacter bacteriophages.
Highlights
Achromobacter spp. are ubiquitous, lactose nonfermenting, Gram-negative bacilli that are frequently isolated from a wide range of environmental habitats [1]
While a number of published reports of Achromobacter phages may be found in the literature [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17], most describe viruses that are lytic against Achromobacter xylosoxidans, the type species of the genus
Our results indicate that AchV4 is distantly related to one out of 30 sequenced Achromobacter viruses, Achromobacter xylosoxidans bacteriophage phiAxp-2
Summary
Achromobacter spp. are ubiquitous, lactose nonfermenting, Gram-negative bacilli that are frequently isolated from a wide range of environmental habitats [1]. Achromobacter species do not typically cause diseases in normal subjects, some members of this genus may become opportunistic pathogens in certain conditions, such as cystic fibrosis, hematologic and solid organ malignancies, renal failure, and certain immune deficiencies. In such cases, infections caused by this bacterium are complicated by the fact that Achromobacter spp. possess innate antimicrobial resistance, readily acquire adaptive resistance with antimicrobial exposure, and tend to alter the expression of certain genes to promote chronic infection [2,3,4,5]. The type strain, A. spanius LMG 5911, originated from the blood of a cystic fibrosis patient [18,19]
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