Biotechnological applications of bacteriophages: State of the art.

Bacteriophage particles are the most abundant biological entities on our planet, infecting specific bacterial hosts in every known environment and being major drivers of bacterial adaptive evolution. The study of bacteriophage particles potentially sheds light on the development of new biotechnology products. Bacteriophage therapy, although not new, makes use of strictly lytic phage particles as an alternative in the antimicrobial treatment of resistant bacterial infections and is being rediscovered as a safe method due to the fact that these biological entities devoid of any metabolic machinery do not have affinity to eukaryotic cells.

The complete genome of the oil emulsifying strain Thalassolituus oleivorans K-188 from the Barents Sea.

Gammaproteobacterium Thalassolituus oleivorans plays an important role in oil degradation in sea water through emulsifying crude oil and alkanes at low temperatures in polar sea environment. Here we report the complete genome sequence of K-188 strain (VKPM B-9394) isolated in the Barents Sea and compare it with other known Thalassolituus oleivorans strains. The Thalassolituus strains are differed in orthologs number of the genes of alkane degradation, transport proteins, genes of sugar utilization, endonucleases, signaling proteins, transcriptional regulators and presence of CRISPR/Cas locus.

Ogataea haglerorum sp. nov., a novel member of the species complex, Ogataea (Hansenula) polymorpha.

Three strains representing a novel species of the Ogataea clade were isolated by W. T. Starmer and H.

New family of pectinase genes PGU1b-PGU3b of the pectinolytic yeast Saccharomyces bayanus var. uvarum.

Using yeast genome databases and literature data, we have conducted a phylogenetic analysis of pectinase PGU genes from Saccharomyces strains assigned to the biological species S. arboricola, S. bayanus (var.

Komagataella kurtzmanii sp. nov., a new sibling species of Komagataella (Pichia) pastoris based on multigene sequence analysis.

A novel methanol assimilating yeast species Komagataella kurtzmanii is described using the type strain VKPM Y-727 (=KBP Y-2878 = UCD-FST 76-20 = Starmer #75-208.2 = CBS 12817 = NRRL Y-63667) isolated by W.T.

Molecular genetic diversity of the Saccharomyces yeasts in Taiwan: Saccharomyces arboricola, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces kudriavzevii.

Genetic hybridization, sequence and karyotypic analyses of natural Saccharomyces yeasts isolated in different regions of Taiwan revealed three biological species: Saccharomyces arboricola, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces kudriavzevii. Intraspecies variability of the D1/D2 and ITS1 rDNA sequences was detected among S. cerevisiae and S.

Genetic diversity study of the yeast Saccharomyces bayanus var. uvarum reveals introgressed subtelomeric Saccharomyces cerevisiae genes.

Intraspecies polymorphism of the yeast Saccharomyces bayanus var. uvarum was studied using the polymerase chain reaction with a microsatellite primer (GTG)(5). Sixty-nine strains of different origins were analyzed.

GH101 family of glycoside hydrolases: subfamily structure and evolutionary connections with other families.

The GH101 family is composed of endo-alpha-N-acetylgalactosaminidases and their homologues. Pairwise sequence comparison and phylogenetic analysis allowed us to distinguish five to six subfamilies in this family. Diverse domain structures were found among the family members.

Genetic identification of new biological species Saccharomyces arboricolus Wang et Bai.

Direct genetic testing for hybrid sterility unambiguously showed that the newly described yeast Saccharomyces arboricolus Wang et Bai is reproductively isolated from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Saccharomyces bayanus, Saccharomyces cariocanus, Saccharomyces kudriavzevii, Saccharomyces mikatae and Saccharomyces paradoxus and, therefore, represents a new biological species of the genus Saccharomyces. Combined phylogenetic analysis of the rDNA repeat sequences (18S, 26S, ITS), nuclear ACT1 and mitochondrial ATP9 genes revealed that S. arboricolus, along with S.

Viral dsRNA in the wine yeast Saccharomyces bayanus var. uvarum.

The presence of viral dsRNA (L and M fractions) in the cryophilic yeast Saccharomyces bayanus var. uvarum is documented here for the first time. Sixty-eight strains of different origins were analyzed.

Molecular-genetic diversity of the ascomycetous yeast genus Arthroascus: Arthroascus babjevae sp. nov., Arthroascus fermentans var. arxii var. nov. and geographical populations of Arthroascus schoenii.

Using molecular and genetic analyses, 28 Arthroascus strains were analysed, isolated from widely different geographical localities in Europe, North America, Far-East Asia and Hawaii. Most of the strains have been assigned to the species Arthroascus schoenii. PCR-RAPD revealed two Japanese Arthroascus strains (UCD 67-278 and IFO 10138) to have peculiar patterns.

The structural proteome of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophage phiKMV.

The structural proteome of phiKMV, a lytic bacteriophage infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa, was analysed using two approaches. In one approach, structural proteins of the phage were fractionated by SDS-PAGE for identification by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). In a second approach, a whole-phage shotgun analysis (WSA) was applied.

Molecular genetic study of introgression between Saccharomyces bayanus and S. cerevisiae.

The genomic constitution of different S. bayanus strains and natural interspecific Saccharomyces hybrids has been studied by genetic and molecular methods. Unlike S.

GH97 is a new family of glycoside hydrolases, which is related to the alpha-galactosidase superfamily.

Background: As a rule, about 1% of genes in a given genome encode glycoside hydrolases and their homologues. On the basis of sequence similarity they have been grouped into more than ninety GH families during the last 15 years. The GH97 family has been established very recently and initially included only 18 bacterial proteins.

Molecular-genetic differentiation of the dairy yeast Kluyveromyces lactis and its closest wild relatives.

The currently accepted formal division of the species Kluyveromyces lactis into two taxonomic varieties, Kl. lactis var. lactis and Kl.

Differentiation of the yeasts Williopsis, Zygowilliopsis and Komagataea by karyotypic and PCR analyses.

We used polymerase chain reaction with universal and microsatellite primers, and molecular karyotyping to evaluate the extent of divergence between the genomes of the yeasts currently assigned to the heterogeneous genus Williopsis. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of chromosomal DNAs indicates that Zygowilliopsis californica, Komagataea pratensis, Williopsis mucosa, Williopsis salicorniae species and Williopsis sensu stricto complex have clearly different karyotypes. In contrast, the latter six species, Williopsis saturnus, W.

Ribosomal DNA sequencing and reinstatement of the genus Arthroascus von Arx.

Sequence analysis of the D1/D2 domain of 26S rDNA was conducted upon seven Arthroascus strains from different geographic localities. The European and Asian species Arthroascus schoenii was documented from the North-American continent and from the Island of Hawaii. We discuss the heterogeneity of the genus Saccharomycopsis sensu Kurtzman and Robnett 1995.

Myoviridae bacteriophages of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: a long and complex evolutionary pathway.

Recently we have accomplished the entire DNA sequence of bacteriophage phiKZ, a giant virus infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The 280334-bp of phiKZ genome is a linear, circularly permutated and terminally redundant, AT-rich dsDNA molecule that contains no sites for NotI, PstI, SacI, SmaI, XhoI and XmaIII endonucleases. Limited homology to other bacteriophages on the DNA and protein levels indicated that phiKZ represents a distinct branch of the Myoviridae family.

Differentiation of six sibling species in the Saccharomyces sensu stricto complex by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis and UP-PCR analysis.

UP-PCR analysis and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis were used to characterize 37 strains of the sibling species Saccharomyces cerevisiae, S. bayanus, S. cariocanus, S.

Molecular genetic identification of Saccharomyces sensu stricto strains from African sorghum beer.

Genetic relationships of 24 phenotypically different strains isolated from sorghum beer in West Africa and the type cultures of the Saccharomyces sensu stricto species were investigated by universally primed polymerase chain reaction (PCR) analysis, microsatellite fingerprinting and PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacers. The results demonstrate that internal transcribed spacer (ITS) PCR-RFLP analysis with the endonucleases HaeIII, HpaII, ScrFI and TaqI is useful for discriminating S. cerevisiae, S.

Five new combinations in the yeast genus Zygofabospora Kudriavzev emend. G. Naumov (pro parte Kluyveromyces) based on genetic data.

The rDNA sequencing data obtained during the last 5 years in several laboratories clearly demonstrate that within the heterogeneous genus Kluyveromyces there is a group of highly related species, which we refer to as the genus Zygofabospora Kudriavzev 1960 emend. G. Naumov 2002.