[Isolation and phylogenetic analysis of major capsid gene (g23) of bacteriophages infecting Sinorhizobium meliloti].

Objective: In order to provide scientific data for studying the ecology of phage infecting Sinorhizobium meliloti, we examined morphological characteristics of rhizobiophages and their phylogenetic status of the major captain protein g23.

Methods: Rhizobiophages were isolated by the double-layer plate method with host Sinorhizobium meliloti USDA1002T. The morphological characteristic of rhizobiophages were studied by transmission electron microscope. Meanwhile, rhizobiophage DNA was extracted, and the g23 that encodes the major capsid protein of bacteriophages was chosen as objective gene in PCR amplification.

Results: Three rhizobiophages were isolated, all had an icosahedral head with approximately 81 to 86 nm in diameter and a long contractile tail with 54 to 70 nm in length. Basic local alignment search tool searches in website of national center for biotechnology information (NCBI) revealed that the g23 amino acid sequences obtained in this study had high identity with each other, but had very lower identity with those from T-evens, PseudoT-evens, SchizoT-evens and ExoT-evens. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the isolated g23 sequences formed a unique clade with those clones obtained from different ecosystem.

Conclusion: All results indicated that the isolated rhizobiophages belong to family Myoviridae, a new group of T4 phages, which had lower identity with the g23 clones obtained in different environment.