Novel T4 bacteriophages associated with black band disease in corals

Abstract

Summary Research into causative agents underlying coral disease have focused primarily on bacteria, whereas potential roles of viruses have been largely unaddressed. Bacteriophages may contribute to diseases through the lysogenic introduction of virulence genes into bacteria, or prevent diseases through lysis of bacterial pathogens. To identify candidate phages that may influence the pathogenicity of black band disease (BBD), communities of bacteria (16S rRNA) and T4‐bacteriophages (gp23) were simultaneously profiled with amplicon sequencing among BBD‐lesions and healthy‐coral‐tissue of Montipora hispida, as well as seawater (study site: the central Great Barrier Reef). Bacterial community compositions were distinct among BBD‐lesions, healthy coral tissue and seawater samples, as observed in previous studies. Surprisingly, however, viral beta diversities based on both operational taxonomic unit (OTU)‐compositions and overall viral community compositions of assigned taxa did not differ statistically between the BBD‐lesions and healthy coral tissue. Nonetheless, relative abundances of three bacteriophage OTUs, affiliated to Cyanophage PRSM6 and Prochlorococcus phages P‐SSM2, were significantly higher in BBD‐lesions than in healthy tissue. These OTUs associated with BBD samples suggest the presence of bacteriophages that infect members of the cyanobacteria‐dominated BBD community, and thus have potential roles in BBD pathogenicity.

Quyushengxin Formula Causes Differences in Bacterial and Phage Composition in Ulcerative Colitis Patients

“…Prochlorococcus phages P-SSM2 was significantly associated with black band disease [27]. Although QYSX may affect the composition of gut virome, the specific roles on viruses are still unknown.…”

Bacteriophages in the Control of Aeromonas sp. in Aquaculture Systems: An Integrative View

“…UV radiation is one of the main factors that affect phage particle stability in surface coastal waters [ 150 , 255 , 264 , 265 , 266 , 267 ]. This radiation can degrade phage proteins and form photoproducts such as cyclobutene pyrimidine dimers [ 268 , 269 ], and/or modify their genetic material (either DNA or RNA) [ 150 , 264 , 265 , 266 , 267 ].…”

“…UV radiation is one of the main factors that affect phage particle stability in surface coastal waters [ 150 , 255 , 264 , 265 , 266 , 267 ]. This radiation can degrade phage proteins and form photoproducts such as cyclobutene pyrimidine dimers [ 268 , 269 ], and/or modify their genetic material (either DNA or RNA) [ 150 , 264 , 265 , 266 , 267 ]. Since lethal UV radiation photoproducts are normally thymine dimers, DNA phages are usually more sensitive to damage than RNA phages [ 256 ].…”

Role of Phylogenetic Structure in the Dynamics of Coastal Viral Assemblages

“…The rise in OTUs was linear for similarities from 50% to 95%, but above 95%, the slope was nonlinear; thus, USEARCH (85) was used to cluster sequences with 95% similarity into an OTU and was used to build OTU tables. Similar approaches for determining sequence similarity cutoffs have been used in other studies (27,69,(87)(88)(89). vegan (90) was used to generate rarefaction curves and normalize the sequences; only samples in which .2,000 quality-trimmed reads were retained were analyzed.…”