Genomic and biological characteristics of syphovirus from agricultural soil

The staff of the Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding of microorganisms of the Federal State Budgetary Budgetary Institution VNIISHM, led by Rumyantseva M.L., published an article in the journal Data on the study of genomic and biological characteristics of the moderate phage Sinorhizobium, AP-202, isolated from agricultural chernozem. The key feature of the phage genome is the extremely low content of GC nucleotides (only 27%) with a length of 121,599 kb, which distinguishes it from most known phages. The phage has a syphoviral morphology and a T7-like DNA packaging mechanism. Analysis of the domain structure of proteins encoded by "dark matter" genes suggested that AP-202 can act as an "ecological filter" in soil microbial communities, selectively suppressing the number of host bacteria.
According to the totality of genomic and functional features, the phage belongs to a new phylogenetic lineage and represents a unique model for studying the coevolution of phages and rhizobia in soil ecosystems.
The study was carried out within the framework of the Russian Science Foundation 24-26-00274 project.

Roumiantseva M.L., Kozlova A.P., Muntyan V.S., Vladimirova M.E., Saksaganskaia, A.S., Gorshkov, A.N., Kabilov, M.R., Simarov, B.V.; Whole-Genome Sequencing of Sinorhizobium Phage AP-202, a Novel Siphovirus from Agricultural Soil. Data. 2026 Jan 11(1):15 https://doi.org/10.3390/data11010015