Advances in bacteriophages isolated from hypersaline environments

Abstract:

Viruses play an important role in ecological systems and widely distribute in various environments, including hypersaline environments. The study of viruses in hypersaline environments has become a new hotspot in the field of extremophiles. To date, around 90 viruses out of more than 100 haloviruses have been described for extremely halophilic archaea, while only 14 viruses are known to infect bacterial halophiles. This article reviews the morphological properties, response to salinity and genomics of 14 bacteriophages isolated from hypersaline environments, and also analyzes their morphological diversity, survival strategies and original and evolutionary information in genomes. It reveals that the Caudovirales are the most abundant viruses in hypersaline environments. These bacteriophages are euryhaline and their adsorption and replication were affected by salinity. They may have common ancestry with those from other environments. Although after nearly 30 years research, only 14 bacteriophages were isolated from hypersaline environments. Hence, isolation and purification of halophages is one of the important works in the future, and studies combining with culture-independent technology to elucidate their diversity and ecological functions are the future developmental direction.

Key words:Hypersaline environments, Bacteriophage, Biological characteristics, Response to salinity, Genomics