Canadian Science Publishing, Canadian Journal of Microbiology, 3(64), p. 183-190
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As the “kidneys of the Earth”, wetlands play important roles as biodiversity reservoirs, in water purification, and in flood control. In this study, 2 lytic cold-active bacteriophages, named VW-6S and VW-6B, infecting Pseudomonas fluorescens W-6 cells from the Napahai plateau wetland in China were isolated and characterized. Electron microscopy showed that both VW-6S and VW-6B had an icosahedral head (66.7 and 61.1 nm, respectively) and a long tail (8.3 nm width × 233.3 nm length and 11.1 nm width × 166.7 nm length, respectively). The bacteriophages VW-6S and VW-6B were classified as Siphoviridae and had an approximate genome size of 30–40 kb. The latent and burst periods of VW-6S were 60 and 30 min, whereas those of VW-6B were 30 and 30 min, respectively. The optimal pH values for the bacteriophages VW-6S and VW-6B were 8.0 and 10.0, respectively, and their activity decreased rapidly at temperatures higher than 60 °C. These cold-active bacteriophages provide good materials for further study of cold-adaptation mechanisms and interaction with the host P. fluorescens.