Genomics of Burkholderia Phages
Karlene H. Lynch and Jonathan J. Dennis
from: Burkholderia: From Genomes to Function (Edited by: Tom Coenye and Eshwar Mahenthiralingam). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2014)
Abstract
Sequenced phages that infect and/or lysogenize strains of Burkholderia pseudomallei, Burkholderia mallei, Burkholderia thailandensis, and the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) belong to the tailed phage order Caudovirales and families Myoviridae, Podoviridae, and Siphoviridae. Within these families, phages can be classified as part of at least ten distinct genera based on CoreGenes analysis of protein relatedness. Members of these genera show similarity to myoviruses P2, Bcep781, PB1, and BcepMu, podoviruses Bcep22 and BPP-1, and siphoviruses PA73, BcepNazgul, ΦE125, and BcepGomr. Prophage islands have also been identified in the sequenced genomes of B. pseudomallei, B. thailandensis, Burkholderia cenocepacia, and Burkholderia xenovorans, but not B. mallei. Similar to phages infecting other organisms, Burkholderia phage genomes are diverse, unique, and modular. In contrast to many other bacterial pathogens, characterized Burkholderia virulence factors do not appear to be phage-encoded. However, several putative lysogenic conversion genes have been identified that require functional characterization during the development of phage therapy protocols for this genus read more ...
