A Novel Singleton Giant Phage Yong-XC31 Lytic to the Pyropia Pathogen Vibrio mediterranei

Vibrio mediterranei 117-T6 is extensively pathogenic to several Pyropia species, leading to the death of conchocelis. In this study, the first V. mediterranei phage (named Vibrio phage Yong-XC31, abbreviated as Yong-XC31) was isolated. Yong-XC31 is a giant phage containing an icosahedral head about 113 nm in diameter and a contractible tail about 219 nm in length. The latent period of Yong-XC31 is 30 min, and burst size is 64,227. Adsorption rate of Yong-XC31 to V. mediterranei 117-T6 can reach 93.8% in 2 min. The phage genome consisted of a linear, double-stranded 290,532 bp DNA molecule with a G + C content of 45.87%. Bioinformatic analyses predicted 318 open reading frames (ORFs), 80 of which had no similarity to protein sequences in current (26 January 2021) public databases. Yong-XC31 shared the highest pair-wise average nucleotide identity (ANI) value of 58.65% (below the ≥95% boundary to define a species) and the highest nucleotide sequence similarity of 11.71% (below the >50% boundary to define a genus) with the closest related phage. In the proteomic tree based on genome-wide sequence similarities, Yong-XC31 and three unclassified giant phages clustered in a monophyletic clade independently between the family Drexlerviridae and Herelleviridae. Results demonstrated Yong-XC31 as a new evolutionary lineage of phage. We propose a new phage family in Caudovirales order. This study provides new insights and fundamental data for the study and application of giant phages.