viruses Article First Description of a Temperate Bacteriophage (vB_FhiM_KIRK) of Francisella hispaniensis Strain 3523 Kristin Köppen 1,†, Grisna I. Prensa 1,†, Kerstin Rydzewski 1, Hana Tlapák 1, Gudrun Holland 2 and Klaus Heuner 1,* 1 Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens, Cellular Interactions of Bacterial Pathogens, ZBS 2, Robert Koch Institute, 13353 Berlin, Germany;
[email protected] (K.K.);
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[email protected] (H.T.) 2 Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens, Advanced Light and Electron Microscopy, ZBS 4, Robert Koch Institute, D-13353 Berlin, Germany;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +49-30-18754-2226 † Both authors contributed equally to this work. Abstract: Here we present the characterization of a Francisella bacteriophage (vB_FhiM_KIRK) includ- ing the morphology, the genome sequence and the induction of the prophage. The prophage sequence (FhaGI-1) has previously been identified in F. hispaniensis strain 3523. UV radiation induced the prophage to assemble phage particles consisting of an icosahedral head (~52 nm in diameter), a tail of up to 97 nm in length and a mean width of 9 nm. The double stranded genome of vB_FhiM_KIRK contains 51 open reading frames and is 34,259 bp in length. The genotypic and phylogenetic analysis indicated that this phage seems to belong to the Myoviridae family of bacteriophages. Under the Citation: Köppen, K.; Prensa, G.I.; conditions tested here, host cell (Francisella hispaniensis 3523) lysis activity of KIRK was very low, and Rydzewski, K.; Tlapák, H.; Holland, the phage particles seem to be defective for infecting new bacterial cells.