Hedieh Attai, Maarten Boon, Kenya Phillips, Jean-Paul Noben, Rob Lavigne, Pamela J. B. Brown
Abstract
Agrobacterium tumefaciens is a plant pathogen that causes crown gall disease, leading to the damage of agriculturally-important crops. As part of an effort to discover new phages that can potentially be used as biocontrol agents to prevent crown gall disease, we isolated and characterized phage Atu_ph07 from Sawyer Creek in Springfield, MO, using the virulent Agrobacterium tumefaciens strain C58 as a host. After surveying its host range, we found that Atu_ph07 exclusively infects Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Time-lapse microscopy of A. tumefaciens cells subjected to infection at a multiplicity of infection (MOI) of 10 with Atu_ph07 reveals that lysis occurs within 3 h. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of virions shows that Atu_ph07 has a typical Myoviridae morphology with an icosahedral head, long tail, and tail fibers. The sequenced genome of Atu_ph07 is 490 kbp, defining it as a jumbo phage. The Atu_ph07 genome contains 714 open reading frames (ORFs), including 390 ORFs with no discernable homologs in other lineages (ORFans), 214 predicted conserved hypothetical proteins with no assigned function, and 110 predicted proteins with a functional annotation based on similarity to conserved proteins. The proteins with predicted functional annotations share sequence similarity with proteins from bacteriophages and bacteria. The functionally annotated genes are predicted to encode DNA replication proteins, structural proteins, lysis proteins, proteins involved in nucleotide metabolism, and tRNAs. Characterization of the gene products reveals that Atu_ph07 encodes homologs of 16 T4 core proteins and is closely related to Rak2-like phages. Using ESI-MS/MS, the majority of predicted structural proteins could be experimentally confirmed and 112 additional virion-associated proteins were identified. The genomic characterization of Atu_ph07 suggests that this phage is lytic and the dynamics of Atu_ph07 interaction with its host indicate that this phage may be suitable for inclusion in a phage cocktail to be used as a biocontrol agent.
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
2
3%
Environmental Science
2
3%
Other
7
10%
Unknown
21
30%
Attention Score in Context
Attention Score in Context
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 56. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 10 May 2019.
All research outputs
#801,631
of 26,454,856 outputs
Outputs from Frontiers in Microbiology
#441
of 30,371 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#16,257
of 345,190 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Microbiology
#18
of 750 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 26,454,856 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 96th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 30,371 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 6.5. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 98% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 750 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
