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Molecular Analysis of Arthrobacter Myovirus vB_ArtM-ArV1: We Blame It on the Tail

ABSTRACT This is the first report on a myophage that infects Arthrobacter. A novel virus, vB_ArtM-ArV1 (ArV1), was isolated from soil using Arthrobacter sp. strain 68b for phage propagation. Transmission electron microscopy showed its resemblance to members of the family Myoviridae: ArV1 has an isometric head (∼74 nm in diameter) and a contractile, nonflexible tail (∼192 nm). Phylogenetic and comparative sequence analyses, however, revealed that ArV1 has more genes in common with phages from the family Siphoviridae than it does with any myovirus characterized to date. The genome of ArV1 is a linear, circularly permuted, double-stranded DNA molecule (71,200 bp) with a GC content of 61.6%. The genome includes 101 open reading frames (ORFs) yet contains no tRNA genes. More than 50% of ArV1 genes encode unique proteins that either have no reliable identity to database entries or have homologues only in Arthrobacter phages, both sipho- and myoviruses. Using bioinformatics approaches, 13 ArV1 structural genes were identified, including those coding for head, tail, tail fiber, and baseplate proteins. A further 6 ArV1 ORFs were annotated as encoding putative structural proteins based on the results of proteomic analysis. Phylogenetic analysis based on the alignment of four conserved virion proteins revealed that Arthrobacter myophages form a discrete clade that seems to occupy a position somewhat intermediate between myo- and siphoviruses. Thus, the data presented here will help to advance our understanding of genetic diversity and evolution of phages that constitute the order Caudovirales. IMPORTANCE Bacteriophages, which likely originated in the early Precambrian Era, represent the most numerous population on the planet. Approximately 95% of known phages are tailed viruses that comprise three families: Podoviridae (with short tails), Siphoviridae (with long noncontractile tails), and Myoviridae (with contractile tails). Based on the current hypothesis, myophages, which may have evolved from siphophages, are thought to have first emerged among Gram-negative bacteria, whereas they emerged only later among Gram-positive bacteria. The results of the molecular characterization of myophage vB_ArtM-ArV1 presented here conform to the aforementioned hypothesis, since, at a glance, bacteriophage vB_ArtM-ArV1 appears to be a siphovirus that possesses a seemingly functional contractile tail. Our work demonstrates that such “chimeric” myophages are of cosmopolitan nature and are likely characteristic of the ecologically important soil bacterial genus Arthrobacter.