Bacteriophage OP1' lytic for Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae, changes its host range by duplication and deletion of the small domain in the deduced tail fiber gene

The entire genome of bacteriophage OP1, lytic for Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae causing bacterial leaf blight of rice, and the partial genomes of related phages were sequenced and analyzed. The OP1 genome comprises double-stranded, 4785-bp long DNA with 51.1% G + C content. Fifty-nine open reading frames (ORFs) were detected. ORF25 had similarity with the tail fiber gene of phages, whose product is related to host specificity. The ORF25 regions were amplified from four host-range mutants (OP1h, OP1hC, OP1h2, and OP1h2C) by polymerase chain reaction, and their deduced amino acid sequences were compared. Three mutants (OP1hC, OP1h2, OP1h2C) had duplications of a small domain in the N-terminal portion, although there were slight differences in the position of the duplicated sequences. One mutant OP1h had substituted amino acids in the duplication region. New mutants isolated in the laboratory (OP1hC and OP1h2C from OP1 and OP1h2) acquired the ability to lyse strain N5874 belonging to phagovar (lysotype) C. However, they rapidly lost this lytic ability when incubated with other phagovars. This loss was always accompanied by a loss of the characteristic repeats, suggesting that the host range of OP1-related phages changed mainly through duplication and deletion of a small domain in ORF25. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]