Genomic survey reveals no detectable bacteriophage activity in Mycobacterium bovis across a large population.

ABSTRACT: Phages are major drivers of bacterial evolution, yet their ecological and evolutionary interactions with Mycobacterium bovis, a key member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), remain understudied. In this work, we investigate the elusive phage-bacterium interface in M. bovis by integrating comparative genomics of 200 isolates from infected animals with molecular analyses of M. bovis-positive environmental samples. Despite employing diverse and complementary approaches, we found no evidence of active or recent phage infections: no novel prophages beyond the conserved phiRv1, no expansion of CRISPR arrays, and no cooccurrence of M. bovis and mycobacteriophages in host tissues or environmental matrices. Intriguingly, we identified multiple independent excision events of phiRv1 ac

SUBMITTER: Pinto D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12268328 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature