Genomic analysis and biological properties of a novel Serratia liquefaciens phage

Abstract A novel lytic Serratia liquefaciens phage, named vB_Slq_MQ-4, was isolated from sewage. BLASTn analysis showed that the genome sequence of phage vB_Slq_MQ-4 shared only 15% query coverage with that of Escherichia phage vB_EcoM-ep3 with 80.52% identity. Genomic analysis demonstrated that phage vB_Slq_MQ-4 consists of a 43,534 bp of dsDNA with 56% GC content and might be a new member of the family Myoviridae . Moreover, vB_Slq_MQ-4 has strong lytic performance with the shorter latent period (10 min) and the higher burst size (267 PFU per cell) as well as wide range of thermal (below 70℃) and pH tolerance (pH 4-12).