Skip to main content
Genome Announcements logoLink to Genome Announcements
. 2015 Oct 22;3(5):e01146-15. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.01146-15

Genome Sequences of Five Additional Brevibacillus laterosporus Bacteriophages

Bryan D Merrill 1, Jordan A Berg 1, Kiel A Graves 1, Andy T Ward 1, Jared A Hilton 1, Braden N Wake 1, Julianne H Grose 1, Donald P Breakwell 1, Sandra H Burnett 1,
PMCID: PMC4616168  PMID: 26494658

Abstract

Brevibacillus laterosporus has been isolated from many different environments, including beehives, and produces compounds that are toxic to many organisms. Five B. laterosporus phages have been isolated previously. Here, we announce five additional phages that infect this bacterium, including the first B. laterosporus siphoviruses to be discovered.

GENOME ANNOUNCEMENT

Brevibacillus laterosporus is a spore-forming Firmicutes bacterium that is found in many locations, including beehives (1). This bacterium is a secondary invader following European Foulbrood of honeybees (2). It also produces compounds that are toxic to many organisms including bacteria, fungi, nematodes, mollusks, and mosquitoes, making it potentially useful for bioremediation or biocontrol (1, 36). Five phages infecting this genus have been described previously (7). We announce five additional complete genome sequences of bacteriophages that infect B. laterosporus.

These phages were isolated by enrichment of bee debris samples gathered from beehives in Utah using field isolates previously described as being Paenibacillus larvae. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences indicates these field isolates, as well as P. larvae subsp. pulvifaciens DSM 8442 and DSM 8443 are indeed B. laterosporus bacteria. This finding was further supported by PCR and sequencing of additional loci. Phages were isolated and then plaque purified using either BL2, BL6, or BL14 as described previously (7, 8). Transmission electron micrographs were obtained for each phage to determine structural morphotypes. Phage DNA was extracted (Norgen Biotek, Thorold, ON) following manufacturer specifications. Osiris, Jenst, and SecTim467 were sequenced using 454, while Powder and Sundance were sequenced using Illumina. Sequences were assembled using Newbler 2.9 (Roche Diagnostics, Branford, CT) and Consed (9). Analysis of raw sequencing data, read pileups (PAUSE, https://cpt.tamu.edu/computer-resources/pause/) and large terminase proteins indicates that Powder and Osiris are circularly permuted, while Jenst, SecTim467, and Sundance have short direct terminal repeats. Phages were annotated using DNA Master as described previously (7). Phages Osiris, and Powder exhibited a myovirus morphology, their genomes contained 103 open reading frames (ORFs) and lacked coding for any tRNA sequences. Phages Jenst, SecTim467, and Sundance exhibited a siphovirus morphology and their genomes contained 178, 183, and 194 ORFs, respectively, with Jenst and SecTim467 containing 6 tRNAs and Sundance lacking tRNAs.

These five phages, as well as the five phages described previously (Jimmer1, Jimmer2, Abouo, Davies, and Emery) (8) were able to infect B. laterosporus BGSC 40A1 (10), suggesting that all ten are phages of B. laterosporus and not of P. larvae as previously reported. These ten phages represent the first phages isolated that infect the genus Brevibacillus.

Nucleotide sequence accession numbers.

GenBank accession numbers for the five Brevibacillus laterosporus bacteriophages are listed in Table 1.

TABLE 1 .

Brevibacillus laterosporus bacteriophage genomes

Phage name Accession no. Fold coverage Genome length G+C content (%)
Osiris KT151956 351.6 52,955 bp 38.10
Powder KT151958 73.5 52,992 bp 38.14
Jenst KT151955 87.3 126,341 bp 42.89
SecTim467 KT151957 122.9 130,482 bp 42.71
Sundance KT151959 20.4 134,270 bp 35.50

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was funded by the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Biology and the College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University.

We appreciate the help of Ed Wilcox (BYU DNA Sequencing Center) and Michael Standing (BYU Microscopy Lab). We are grateful to Dan Russell at the University of Pittsburgh and HHMI SEA-PHAGES for sequencing and assembling two of these genomes. We appreciate the assistance of Bethie Newey, Xane Beckstead, Trevor Wienclaw, and Alex Taylor.

Footnotes

Citation Merrill BD, Berg JA, Graves KA, Ward AT, Hilton JA, Wake BN, Grose JH, Breakwell DP, Burnett SH. 2015. Genome sequences of five additional Brevibacillus laterosporus bacteriophages. Genome Announc 3(5):e01146-15. doi:10.1128/genomeA.01146-15.

REFERENCES

  • 1.Ruiu L. 2013. Brevibacillus laterosporus, a pathogen of invertebrates and a broad-spectrum antimicrobial species. Insects 4:476–492. doi: 10.3390/insects4030476. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Forsgren E. 2010. European foulbrood in honey bees. J Invertebr Pathol 103:S5–S9. doi: 10.1016/j.jip.2009.06.016. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 3.De Oliveira EJ, Rabinovitch L, Monnerat RG, Passos LKJ, Zahner V. 2004. Molecular characterization of Brevibacillus laterosporus and its potential use in biological control. Appl Environ Microbiol 70:6657–6664. doi: 10.1128/AEM.70.11.6657-6664.2004. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Orlova MV, Smirnova TA, Ganushkina LA, Yacubovich VY, Azizbekyan RR. 1998. Insecticidal activity of Bacillus laterosporus. Appl Environ Microbiol 64:2723–2725. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 5.Ruiu L, Satta A, Floris I. 2014. Administration of Brevibacillus laterosporus spores as a poultry feed additive to inhibit house fly development in feces: a new eco-sustainable concept. Poult Sci 93:519–526. doi: 10.3382/ps.2013-03418. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 6.Zhao J, Guo L, Zeng H, Yang X, Yuan J, Shi H, Xiong Y, Chen M, Han L, Qiu D. 2012. Purification and characterization of a novel antimicrobial peptide from Brevibacillus laterosporus strain a60. Peptides 33:206–211. doi: 10.1016/j.peptides.2012.01.001. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 7.Sheflo MA, Gardner AV, Merrill BD, Fisher JNB, Lunt BL, Breakwell DP, Grose JH, Burnett SH. 2013. Complete genome sequences of five Paenibacillus larvae bacteriophages. Genome Announc 1(6):e00668-13. doi: 10.1128/genomeA.00668-13. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 8.Merrill BD, Grose JH, Breakwell DP, Burnett SH. 2014. Characterization of Paenibacillus larvae bacteriophages and their genomic relationships to firmicute bacteriophages. BMC Genomics 15:745. doi: 10.1186/1471-2164-15-745. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 9.Gordon D, Green P. 2013. Consed: a graphical editor for next-generation sequencing. Bioinformatics 29:2936–2937. doi: 10.1093/bioinformatics/btt515. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 10.Rivers DB, Vann CN, Zimmack HL, Dean DH. 1991. Mosquitocidal activity of Bacillus laterosporus. J Invertebr Pathol 58:444–447. doi: 10.1016/0022-2011(91)90191-R. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Genome Announcements are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES