Fast detection of mycobacteriophages through conserved genes

Phages promise to be important and unprecedented bioresources for use as tools. Rapid identification of new phages is pivotal for phage resource collection. However, current methods for their characterization are usually laborious and complex. Conserved gene sharing by the same phage group can be exploited to expedite this process. In this study, mycobacteriophages were used as a model phage group to test this approach. First, we obtained the core genome of mycobacteriophages, which was divided into six groups based on homology. Second, we found that one kind of gene belonging to group A (TM4 gene 23-like) was conserved among all mycobacteriophages, and the primers targeting such genes were designed to interrogate the diversity of mycobacteriophages. The obtained data indicate that the conserved genes present in groups of closely-related phages could be used to simplify and streamline new phage identification.