Characterization of a novel Bacillus methylotrophicus phage BM-P1

Bacillus species have been widely used as probiotics in a number of food products. However, these are vulnerable to bacteriophage infections, which poses fermentation failure and eventually result in economic losses. Given this, we designed this study in which the bacteriophage of lysogenic Bacillus methylotrophicus, phage BM-P1, was induced successfully, and its biological characteristics and genome information were researched. The obtained results showed that phage BM-P1 belonged to Myoviridae family. The maximum number of infections for this phage was 10, with a burst size of 104.48 +/- 2.70 counts expressed per milliliter per infective center. Additionally, this phage was temperature- and pH-sensitive and divalent ions (Ca2+, Mg2+) and chloramphenicol did not have a significant influence on its adsorption capacity. Genomic analysis revealed that the genome size of phage BM-P1 was 153 087 bp with 41.94% GC content, including 258 coding sequences. Furthermore, 52 bacteriophages of Bacillus were classified into two clades by using phylogenetic analysis. Among them, phage BM-P1 with phage VB_BsuM-Goe3 and vB_BveM-Goe7 had the highest average nucleotide identity values, 95.23% and 95.28%, respectively. However, synteny analysis revealed transposition, deletion, and insertion in the genome of BM-P1. Considering this, it could be extrapolated that this phage is a new lysogenic phage. In conclusion, this study furthers the knowledge on the properties of B. methylotrophicus phages and provides seminal insights for designing effective antiphage strategies for fermentation industry.