Biodiversity of New Lytic Bacteriophages Infecting Shigella spp. in Freshwater Environment

Bacteriophages, viruses that infect and replicate within prokaryotic cells are the most abundant life forms in environment, yet vast majority of them have not been properly reported or even discovered. Almost all bacteriophages infecting Enterobacteriaceae family, with Escherichia coli being major subject studies, isolated from wastewater, sewage, effluent resources. In present study, we focused on distribution biodiversity Shigella phages an aquatic ecosystem. While no bacteria was recovered Yangtze River, three lytic were this ecosystem subjected to biological, morphological, genomic characteristics. Comparative genomics phylogenetic analyses demonstrated vB _SflM_004 isolate belongs Myoviridae Felixounavirus genus Ounavirinae subfamily, vB_SdyM_006 classified under same however, it is suggested be a new Tevenvirinae subfamily some other related bacteriophages. vB_SsoS_008 phage Siphoviridae Tunavirus genus, Tunavirinae subfamily. The did harbor any genes involved lysogenic cycles showed high temperature pH stability. highly suggests continued isolation non-model members family necessary fully understand bacteriophage diversity environments.