First evidence of host range expansion in virophages and its potential impact on giant viruses and host cells

Said Mougari; Nisrine Chelkha; Dehia Sahmi-Bounsiar; Fabrizio Di Pinto; Philippe Colson; Jonatas Abrahao; Bernard La Scola

In bacteriophages, host range expansion involves several molecular paths. Indeed, spontaneous or induced mutations in the long tail fiber gene have enabled some phages to infect new bacterial hosts [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] . To identify the genetic features responsible for the expanded host range of Guarani, we sequenced the genome of this virophage obtained before and after the passage with each Tupanvirus. The Guarani genome consists of a circular dsDNA genome of 18,967 base pairs encoding 22 predicted genes very similar to Sputnik 24 . We found that the virophage isolated from APMV supernatant has no mutations in its genome compared to the original strain that we sequenced previously 24 . We therefore consider this strain to be the author/funder. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.