A Novel, Broad-Spectrum, Virulent Bacteriophage Targeting Yersinia pestis Isolated from the Soil of Wild Rodent Nests in Yunnan Province, China

作者：Ying Long, Youhong Zhong, Pan Liu, Chunpeng Mao, Haipeng Zhang, Lijie Shi, Shaogui Zi, Xinyu Qin, Zong‐Ti Shao, Rongji Cao, Hongbaiyu Liu, Qi Gao, Ling Yang, Yuming Chen, Yuanying Shen, Peng Wang · 发表于：Pathogens · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3390/pathogens14121195 · 被引用次数：2 · 研究领域：Bacteriophages and microbial interactions、Yersinia bacterium, plague, ectoparasites research、Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies

As promising biological tools, bacteriophages offer broad potential applications in disease diagnosis, treatment, and food safety. This study is the first to isolate a novel bacteriophage, designated vB_YpP_JC53 (abbreviated JC53), from the soil of wild rodent nests in plague-endemic areas of Yunnan Province. This bacteriophage is a T7-like phage that has the broadest host range among all T7-like phages discovered to date and remains stable under varying temperature and pH conditions. Comparative genomic analysis through NCBI revealed that the nucleotide sequence of phage JC53 shares 94.98% homology (95% coverage) with phage PSTCR2, a member of the Solymavirus genus, while exhibiting substantially lower similarity to known Yersinia phages. Further phylogenetic and collinearity analyses demonstrate that JC53 represents an evolutionarily distinct lineage, clearly diverging from Yersinia-infecting, T7-like, and Shigella phages, suggesting the emergence of a novel evolutionary branch. Its low ANI values relative to Yersinia phages and mosaic genome organization indicate a complex evolutionary origin, reflecting the extensive diversity of environmental phage populations. Collectively, these findings support the designation of JC53 as a novel Yersinia phage. Genome sequencing revealed that JC53 has a genome size of 39,415 bp, with a total of 52 predicted open reading frames. The broad bacteriophage spectrum of JC53 challenges the long-standing perception that T4-like bacteriophages...