Comparative Genomics of Six Lytic Phages from the Southwest United States.

Background: Despite their importance to microbial dynamics involving , we have a limited understanding of the diversity of phages that can lyse this model organism.

Materials And Methods: Phages were isolated from soil samples collected from various sites in the southwest U.S.

Forty Years without Family: Three Novel Bacteriophages with High Similarity to SPP1 Reveal Decades of Evolutionary Stasis since the Isolation of Their Famous Relative.

SPP1, an extensively studied bacteriophage of the Gram-positive , is a model system for the study of phage-host interactions. Despite progress in the isolation and characterization of phages, no previously fully sequenced phages have shared more than passing genetic similarity to SPP1. Here, we describe three virulent phages very similar to SPP1; SPP1 has greater than 80% nucleotide sequence identity and shares more that 85% of its protein coding genes with these phages.