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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2008, p. 861-874, Vol. 74, No. 3
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.02099-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Bacteriophage Prevalence in the Genus Azospirillum and Analysis of the First Genome Sequence of an Azospirillum brasilense Integrative Phage
Mickaël Boyer,1
Jacqueline Haurat,1
Sylvie Samain,2
Béatrice Segurens,2
Frédérick Gavory,2
Víctor González,3
Patrick Mavingui,1
René Rohr,1
René Bally,1 and
Florence Wisniewski-Dyé1*
Université de Lyon, Lyon, F-69003, France, Université Lyon 1, Lyon, F-69003, France, CNRS, UMR 5557, Ecologie Microbienne, Villeurbanne F-69622, France, and IFR 41, Villeurbanne F-69622, France,1 Génoscope, Centre National de Séquençage, 2 rue Gaston Crémieux CP 5706, 91057 Evry Cedex, France,2 Centro de Ciencias Genómicas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, AP565-A Cuernavaca, Morelos 62210, México3
Received 13 September 2007/ Accepted 25 November 2007
The prevalence of bacteriophages was investigated in 24 strains of four species of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria belonging to the genus Azospirillum. Upon induction by mitomycin C, the release of phage particles was observed in 11 strains from three species. Transmission electron microscopy revealed two distinct sizes of particles, depending on the identity of the Azospirillum species, typical of the Siphoviridae family. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and hybridization experiments carried out on phage-encapsidated DNAs revealed that all phages isolated from A. lipoferum and A. doebereinerae strains had a size of about 10 kb whereas all phages isolated from A. brasilense strains displayed genome sizes ranging from 62 to 65 kb. Strong DNA hybridizing signals were shown for most phages hosted by the same species whereas no homology was found between phages harbored by different species. Moreover, the complete sequence of the A. brasilense Cd bacteriophage (
Ab-Cd) genome was determined as a double-stranded DNA circular molecule of 62,337 pb that encodes 95 predicted proteins. Only 14 of the predicted proteins could be assigned functions, some of which were involved in DNA processing, phage morphogenesis, and bacterial lysis. In addition, the Ab-Cd complete genome was mapped as a prophage on a 570-kb replicon of strain A. brasilense Cd, and a region of 27.3 kb of Ab-Cd was found to be duplicated on the 130-kb pRhico plasmid previously sequenced from A. brasilense Sp7, the parental strain of A. brasilense Cd.
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: UMR CNRS 5557, Ecologie Microbienne, Université Lyon 1, 43 boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France. Phone: 33 4 72 44 58 89. Fax: 33 4 26 23 44 68. E-mail: wisniews{at}biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr
Published ahead of print on 7 December 2007.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2008, p. 861-874, Vol. 74, No. 3
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.02099-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
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