Abstract
Phages are bacteria targeting viruses and represent the most abundant biological entities on earth. Marine environments are exceptionally rich in bacteriophages, harboring a total of 4x1030 viruses. Nevertheless, marine phages remain poorly characterized. Here we describe the identification of intact prophage sequences in the genome of the marine γ-proteobacterium Vibrio campbellii ATCC BAA-1116 (formerly known as V. harveyi ATCC BAA-1116), which presumably belong to the family of Myoviridae. One prophage was found on chromosome I and shows significant similarities to the previously identified phage ΦHAP-1. The second prophage region is located on chromosome II and is related to Vibrio phage kappa. Exposure of V. campbellii to mitomycin C induced the lytic cycle of two morphologically distinct phages and, as expected, extracellular DNA from induced cultures was found to be specifically enriched for the sequences previously identified as prophage regions. Heat stress (50°C, 30 min) was also found to induce phage release in V. campbellii. Notably, promoter activity of two representative phage genes indicated heterogeneous phage induction within the population.
Highlights
Vibrio campbellii ATCC BAA-1116, formerly known as Vibrio harveyi ATCC BAA-1116 [1], is a versatile marine γ-proteobacterium
We analyzed the genome of V. campbellii ATCC BAA-1116 for potential phage regions using PHAST [15]
In addition to the capsid we saw viral tails, but only for the larger phage particles (Fig 3A). Taken together these results provide compelling evidence that the V. campbellii genome contains at least two intact prophages belonging presumably to the Myoviridae family that are shifted into the lytic cycle upon mitomycin C treatment
Summary
Vibrio campbellii ATCC BAA-1116, formerly known as Vibrio harveyi ATCC BAA-1116 [1], is a versatile marine γ-proteobacterium. In addition to its pelagic lifestyle Vibrio campbellii is able to infect shrimp and fish and associates saprophytically with algae [2, 3]. V. campbellii is hypothesized to be responsible for the “milky sea effect” [4, 5]. This phenomenon of a blue glowing sea was first described by mariners of the 17th century [6]. When V. campbellii colonizes the haptophyte Phaeocystis, the bacterium excretes so-called autoinducers (AIs), which lead to bioluminescence as a result of quorum sensing—the bacterial ability to determine population cell density via chemical communication [5]. The milky sea can cover up to PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0156010 May 23, 2016
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