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This abstract was last modified on March 18, 2024 at 8:26 p.m..
Bacteriophages are obligate parasites that can infect a variety of bacterial hosts. However, much is still unknown concerning phage host-range specificity. This study investigated the role of genetics in host specificity; specifically, genes thought to correlate with isolation host were examined. Two clusters, AZ1 and EH, were chosen for analysis as separate case study groups based on a knowledge gap identified in a prior study that indicated that phages in these clusters share close functional relationships but did not explore host-specific differences. This study specifically compares the genomes of phages with respect to their isolation hosts to evaluate for the presence of shared genes considered relevant to host-phage interactions based on previous research. Eight phages were selected from each cluster through stratified random sampling: four AZ1 phages infecting Arthrobacter atrocyaneus, four AZ1 phages infecting A. globiformis, four EH phages infecting Microbacterium foliorum, and four EH phages infecting M. sp. Network phylogeny analysis supported the genetic closeness of intra-host phages, defined as intra-cluster phages infecting the same host. Gene content similarity (GCS) analysis of phages revealed a general trend of higher GCS between intra-host phages. However, EH phages infecting M. foliorum were an exception, with an average GCS value that was not statistically different from the average GCS between EH phages infecting different hosts (p-value = 0.57). Prior research postulated that receptor binding proteins (RBPs) and endolysins were important for host-range specificity. Intra-host comparison of pham patterns was conducted to analyze putative regions modulating host-specificity. AZ1 phages exhibited synteny in their minor tail regions and endolysin genes, and EH phages exhibited synteny in a potential RBP region. EH phages Percival (infecting M. foliorum) and IAmGroot (infecting M. sp.) shared more synteny than with other intra-host phages. These findings provide evidence for the importance of investigating gene determinants of host-specificity to streamline bacteriophage host-range identification.