Expansion of Known Rhodobacter capsulatus Bacteriophage Diversity with 24 Additional Genomes

Abstract

We report the genome sequences of 24 newly discovered bacteriophages that infect Rhodobacter capsulatus, a model for photosynthesis and horizontal gene transfer studies. All have substantial relatedness to previously reported siphovirus bacteriophages. Most are categorized in known clusters (RcB, RcC, RcD, and RcF), with one forming a new cluster, RcG.

FIG 1

Network phylogeny of R. capsulatus bacteriophages. The predicted proteins of all 53 sequenced R. capsulatus phages and those found in the 14,087-bp RcGTA structural gene region were sorted into 885 families (phams) according to shared amino acid sequence similarities using Phamerator (16). Each genome was then assigned values reflecting the presence or absence of members of each pham; the genomes were compared and displayed using SplitsTree (18). Clusters are indicated with colored ovals. Phage names in bold indicate phages added to this collection as part of this study.