Abstract
Bacteriophages are likely the most abundant entities in the aquatic environment, yet knowledge of their ecology is limited. During a fecal source-tracking study, two genetically novel Leviviridae strains were discovered. Although the novel strains were isolated from coastal waters 1130 km apart (North Carolina and Rhode Island, USA), these strains shared 97% nucleotide similarity and 97–100% amino acid similarity. When the novel strains were compared to nine Levivirus genogroup I strains, they shared 95–100% similarity among the maturation, capsid and lysis proteins, but only 84–85% in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene. Further bioinformatic analyses suggested a recombination event occurred. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of viral recombinants in environmental Leviviridae ssRNA bacteriophages.
Highlights
Bacteriophages have played a major role contributing to our knowledge of molecular biology, in the role of model viruses and as tools to investigate mRNA, genes, genetic codes and genomes
As important as Drosophila was in shaping the field of genetics and Tobacco Mosaic Virus was in advancing the study of virology and biochemistry, the RNA phage MS2 was fundamental in laying the foundation of molecular biology
Findings that JS strains were highly similar to three out of four genes in genogroup I MS2-like strains, shared the catalytic site location in the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene, had an identical 3’ signature [3] and greatly diverged along a stretch of the replicase gene all supported the occurrence of a recombination event
Summary
Bacteriophages have played a major role contributing to our knowledge of molecular biology, in the role of model viruses and as tools to investigate mRNA, genes, genetic codes and genomes. The first sequenced genomes were the RNA bacteriophage MS2 [1] and the DNA bacteriophage Ф-X174 [2]. As important as Drosophila was in shaping the field of genetics and Tobacco Mosaic Virus was in advancing the study of virology and biochemistry, the RNA phage MS2. It is important to continue adding to the basic understanding of phages. The observations presented in this study were rather serendipitous, in that the focus was not on searching for natural recombinant bacteriophages. Evidence of a recombination event was revealed during a ssRNA bacteriophage sequencing project [3]
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