Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages

ABSTRACT T-series phages have been model organisms for molecular biology since the 1940s. Given that these phages have been stocked, distributed, and propagated for decades across the globe, there exists the potential for genetic drift to accumulate between stocks over time. Here, we compared the te...

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Autores principales:	Dinesh Subedi, Jeremy J. Barr
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2021
Materias:	bacteriophages T series bacteriophage T4 stability genetic drift T4 Microbiology QR1-502
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/16a1b5f865924a5b8a9989bc094797e0
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:16a1b5f865924a5b8a9989bc094797e02021-12-02T18:20:19ZTemporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages10.1128/mSystems.00990-202379-5077https://doaj.org/article/16a1b5f865924a5b8a9989bc094797e02021-02-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/mSystems.00990-20https://doaj.org/toc/2379-5077ABSTRACT T-series phages have been model organisms for molecular biology since the 1940s. Given that these phages have been stocked, distributed, and propagated for decades across the globe, there exists the potential for genetic drift to accumulate between stocks over time. Here, we compared the temporal stability and genetic relatedness of laboratory-maintained phage stocks with a T-series collection from 1972. Only the T-even phages produced viable virions. We obtained complete genomes of these T-even phages, along with two contemporary T4 stocks. Performing comparative genomics, we found 12 and 16 nucleotide variations, respectively, in the genomes of T2 and T6, whereas there were ∼172 nucleotide variations between T4 sublines compared with the NCBI RefSeq genome. To account for the possibility of artifacts in NCBI RefSeq, we used the 1972 T4 stock as a reference and compared genetic and phenotypic variations between T4 sublines. Genomic analysis predicted nucleotide variations in genes associated with DNA metabolism and structural proteins. We did not, however, observe any differences in growth characteristics or host range between the T4 sublines. Our study highlights the potential for genetic drift between individually maintained T-series phage stocks, yet after 48 years, this has not resulted in phenotypic alterations in these important model organisms. IMPORTANCE T-series bacteriophages have been used throughout the world for various molecular biology researches, which were critical for establishing the fundamentals of molecular biology, from the structure of DNA to advanced gene-editing tools. These model bacteriophages help keep research data consistent and comparable between laboratories. However, we observed genetic variability when we compared contemporary sublines of T4 phages to a 48-year-old stock of T4. This may have effects on the comparability of results obtained using T4 phage. Here, we highlight the genomic differences between T4 sublines and examined phenotypic differences in phage replication parameters. We observed limited genomic changes but no phenotypic variations between T4 sublines. Our research highlights the possibility of genetic drift in model bacteriophages.Dinesh SubediJeremy J. BarrAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticlebacteriophagesT seriesbacteriophage T4stabilitygenetic driftT4MicrobiologyQR1-502ENmSystems, Vol 6, Iss 1 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	bacteriophages T series bacteriophage T4 stability genetic drift T4 Microbiology QR1-502
spellingShingle	bacteriophages T series bacteriophage T4 stability genetic drift T4 Microbiology QR1-502 Dinesh Subedi Jeremy J. Barr Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages
description	ABSTRACT T-series phages have been model organisms for molecular biology since the 1940s. Given that these phages have been stocked, distributed, and propagated for decades across the globe, there exists the potential for genetic drift to accumulate between stocks over time. Here, we compared the temporal stability and genetic relatedness of laboratory-maintained phage stocks with a T-series collection from 1972. Only the T-even phages produced viable virions. We obtained complete genomes of these T-even phages, along with two contemporary T4 stocks. Performing comparative genomics, we found 12 and 16 nucleotide variations, respectively, in the genomes of T2 and T6, whereas there were ∼172 nucleotide variations between T4 sublines compared with the NCBI RefSeq genome. To account for the possibility of artifacts in NCBI RefSeq, we used the 1972 T4 stock as a reference and compared genetic and phenotypic variations between T4 sublines. Genomic analysis predicted nucleotide variations in genes associated with DNA metabolism and structural proteins. We did not, however, observe any differences in growth characteristics or host range between the T4 sublines. Our study highlights the potential for genetic drift between individually maintained T-series phage stocks, yet after 48 years, this has not resulted in phenotypic alterations in these important model organisms. IMPORTANCE T-series bacteriophages have been used throughout the world for various molecular biology researches, which were critical for establishing the fundamentals of molecular biology, from the structure of DNA to advanced gene-editing tools. These model bacteriophages help keep research data consistent and comparable between laboratories. However, we observed genetic variability when we compared contemporary sublines of T4 phages to a 48-year-old stock of T4. This may have effects on the comparability of results obtained using T4 phage. Here, we highlight the genomic differences between T4 sublines and examined phenotypic differences in phage replication parameters. We observed limited genomic changes but no phenotypic variations between T4 sublines. Our research highlights the possibility of genetic drift in model bacteriophages.
format	article
author	Dinesh Subedi Jeremy J. Barr
author_facet	Dinesh Subedi Jeremy J. Barr
author_sort	Dinesh Subedi
title	Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages
title_short	Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages
title_full	Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages
title_fullStr	Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages
title_full_unstemmed	Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages
title_sort	temporal stability and genetic diversity of 48-year-old t-series phages
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/16a1b5f865924a5b8a9989bc094797e0
work_keys_str_mv	AT dineshsubedi temporalstabilityandgeneticdiversityof48yearoldtseriesphages AT jeremyjbarr temporalstabilityandgeneticdiversityof48yearoldtseriesphages
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Temporal Stability and Genetic Diversity of 48-Year-Old T-Series Phages

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