Exploring the Remarkable Diversity of Culturable Escherichia coli Phages in the Danish Wastewater Environment.

ABSTRACT: Phages drive bacterial diversity, profoundly influencing microbial communities, from microbiomes to the drivers of global biogeochemical cycling. Aiming to broaden our understanding of Escherichiacoli (MG1655, K-12) phages, we screened 188 Danish wastewater samples and isolated 136 phages. Ninety-two of these have genomic sequences with less than 95% similarity to known phages, while most map to existing genera several represent novel lineages. The isolated phages are highly diverse, estimated to represent roughly one-third of the true diversity of culturable virulent dsDNA Escherichia phages in Danish wastewater, yet almost half (40%) are not represented in metagenomic databases, emphasising the importance of isolating phages to uncover diversity. Seven viral families

SUBMITTER: Olsen NS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7552041 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature