AUTHOR=Lopez Maryoris Elisa Soto , Gontijo Marco Tulio Pardini , Cardoso Rodrigo Rezende , Batalha Laís Silva , Eller Monique Renon , Bazzolli Denise Mara Soares , Vidigal Pedro Marcus Pereira , Mendonça Regina Célia Santos 

TITLE=Complete genome analysis of Tequatrovirus ufvareg1, a Tequatrovirus species inhibiting Escherichia coli O157:H7

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/cellular-and-infection-microbiology/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2023.1178248

DOI=10.3389/fcimb.2023.1178248

ISSN=2235-2988

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Bacteriophages infecting human pathogens have been considered potential biocontrol agents, and studying their genetic content is essential to their safe use in the food industry. <italic>Tequatrovirus ufvareg1</italic> is a bacteriophage named UFV-AREG1, isolated from cowshed wastewater and previously tested for its ability to inhibit <italic>Escherichia coli</italic> O157:H7.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p><italic>T. ufvareg</italic>1 was previously isolated using E. <italic>coli</italic> O157:H7 (ATCC 43895) as a bacterial host. The same strain was used for bacteriophage propagation and the one-step growth curve. The genome of the T. ufvareg1 was sequenced using 305 Illumina HiSeq, and the genome comparison was calculated by VIRIDIC and VIPTree.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Here, we characterize its genome and compare it to other <italic>Tequatrovirus</italic>. <italic>T. ufvareg1</italic> virions have an icosahedral head (114 x 86 nm) and a contracted tail (117 x 23 nm), with a latent period of 25 min, and an average burst size was 18 phage particles per infected <italic>E. coli</italic> cell. The genome of the bacteriophage <italic>T. ufvareg1</italic> contains 268 coding DNA sequences (CDS) and ten tRNA genes distributed in both negative and positive strains. <italic>T. ufvareg1</italic> genome also contains 40 promoters on its regulatory regions and two rho-independent terminators. <italic>T. ufvareg1</italic> shares an average intergenomic similarity (VIRIDC) of 88.77% and an average genomic similarity score (VipTree) of 88.91% with eight four reference genomes for <italic>Tequatrovirus</italic> available in the NCBI RefSeq database. The pan-genomic analysis confirmed the high conservation of <italic>Tequatrovirus</italic> genomes. Among all CDS annotated in the <italic>T. ufvareg1</italic> genome, there are 123 core genes, 38 softcore genes, 94 shell genes, and 13 cloud genes. None of 268 CDS was classified as being exclusive of <italic>T. ufvareg1</italic>.</p></sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title><p>The results in this paper, combined with other previously published findings, indicate that <italic>T. ufvareg1</italic> bacteriophage is a potential candidate for food protection against <italic>E. coli</italic> O157:H7 in foods.</p></sec>