Abstract
Bacillus subtilis is an important bacterial species due to its various industrial, medicinal, and agricultural applications. Prophages are known to play vital roles in host properties. Nevertheless, studies on the prophages and temperate phages of B. subtilis are relatively limited. In the present study, an in silico analysis was carried out in sequenced B. subtilis strains to investigate their prevalence, diversity, insertion sites, and potential roles. In addition, the potential for UV induction and prevalence was investigated. The in silico prophage analysis of 164 genomes of B. subtilis strains revealed that 75.00% of them contained intact prophages that exist as integrated and/or plasmid forms. Comparative genomics revealed the rich diversity of the prophages distributed in 13 main clusters and four distinct singletons. The analysis of the putative prophage proteins indicated the involvement of prophages in encoding the proteins linked to the immunity, bacteriocin production, sporulation, arsenate, and arsenite resistance of the host, enhancing its adaptability to diverse environments. An induction study in 91 B. subtilis collections demonstrated that UV-light treatment was instrumental in producing infective phages in 18.68% of them, showing a wide range of host specificity. The high prevalence and inducibility potential of the prophages observed in this study implies that prophages may play vital roles in the B. subtilis host.
Highlights
IntroductionAll bacteria are prone to infection by the most abundant viruses on earth, which are called bacteriophages ( known as phages for short) [1]
Prophages were predicted in 164 sequenced B. subtilis genomes and were used for prevalence prevalence and and distribution distribution analysis
The analyses showed that all of the strains harbored one or more types of intact prophages (IP), questionable prophages (QP), and incomplete prophages (InP)
Summary
All bacteria are prone to infection by the most abundant viruses on earth, which are called bacteriophages ( known as phages for short) [1]. Based on their lifestyles, phages are grouped into either virulent (phages that cause cell lysis after infection) or temperate (phages that cause lysogeny or cell lysis after infection) [2]. The DNA of temperate phages is maintained as prophages within the host and is replicated as its chromosomal integrated form (integrated prophages) or in its circular or linear plasmid forms (plasmid prophages) to render the host as a lysogen [3,4]. The lytic genes of prophages are repressed, while some regulatory and lysogenic conversion genes continue to be expressed [5] to maintain the lysogenic state and to induce prophage-mediated host-phenotypic changes, such as super-infection exclusion, increasing pathogenicity, and expanding the metabolic capacities of the host [6,7]
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