Genomic analysis of Synechococcus phage S-B43 and its adaption to the coastal environment

Abstract

Synechococcus dominate picocyanobacterial communities in coastal environments. However, only a few Synechococcus phages have been described from the coastal seas of the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Here a new Synechococcus phage, S-B43 was isolated from the Bohai Sea, a semi-closed coastal sea of the Northwest Pacific Ocean. S-B43 is a member of Myoviridae, containing 275 predicted open reading frames. Fourteen auxiliary metabolic genes (AMG) were identified from the genome of S-B43, including five photosynthetic associated genes and several AMGs related to its adaption to the high turbidity and eutrophic coastal environment with a low ratio of phosphorus to nitrogen (HNLP). The occurrences of 31 AMGs among 34 cyanophage genomes indicates that AMGs zwf, gnd, speD, petF and those coding for FECH and thioredoxin were more common in coastal areas than in the open ocean and AMGs pebS and ho1 were more prevalent in the open ocean. The occurrence of cyanophage AMGs in different environments might be a reflection of the environmental adaption of their hosts. This study contributes to our understanding of the interactions between cyanobacteria and cyanophages and their environmental adaption to the coastal environment.

Keywords: Auxiliary metabolic genes; Cyanophage; Myoviridae genome; Photosynthetic genes.