Characterization and genomic analysis of Stutzerimonas stutzeri phage vB_PstS_ZQG1, representing a novel viral genus

Stutzerimonas stutzeri is an opportunistic pathogenic bacterium belonging to the Gammaproteobacteria, exhibiting wide distribution in the environment and playing significant ecological roles such as nitrogen fixation or pollutant degradation. Despite its ecological importance, only two S. stutzeri phages have been isolated to date. Here, a novel S. stutzeri phage, vB_PstS_ZQG1, was isolated from the surface seawater of Qingdao, China. Transmission electron microscopy analysis indicates that vB_PstS_ZQG1 has a morphology characterized by a long non-contractile tail. The genomic sequence of vB_PstS_ZQG1 contains a linear, double-strand 61,790-bp with the G+C content of 53.24% and encodes 90 putative open reading frames. Two auxiliary metabolic genes encoding TolA protein and nucleotide pyrophosphohydrolase were identified, which are likely involved in host adaptation and phage reproduction. Phylogenetic and comparative genomic analyses demonstrated that vB_PstS_ZQG1 exhibits low similarity with previously isolated phages or uncultured viruses (average nucleotide identity values range from 21.7 to 29.4), suggesting that it represents a novel viral genus by itself, here named as Fuevirus. Biogeographic analysis showed that vB_PstS_ZQG1 was only detected in epipelagic and mesopelagic zone with low abundance. In summary, our findings of the phage vB_PstS_ZQG1 will provide helpful insights for further research on the interactions between S. stutzeri phages and their hosts, and contribute to discovering unknown viral sequences in the metagenomic database.