As the most abundant biological entities, viruses are major players in marine ecosystems. However, our knowledge about virus-host interactions and viral ecology in the deep sea remains very limited. In this study, a novel bacteriophage (designated as phage BVE2) infecting Bacillus cereus group bacteria, was isolated from deep-sea sediments. Phage BVE2 caused host lysis within 1.5 h after infection. However, the presence of two integrase-encoding genes in the BVE2 genome suggested that BVE2 may also follow a temperate strategy. The genome of phage BVE2 is approximately 20 kb in length and is predicted to encode 28 proteins. Genomic and phylogenetic analysis suggested that BVE2 is a highly mosaic phage that has inherited genetic features from Wbeta-like viruses, B. cereus prophages, and its host, suggesting that frequent horizontal gene transfer events occurred during its evolution. This study will help to reveal the evolutionary history of Wbeta-like viruses and improve our understanding of viral diversity and virus-host interactions in the deep sea.

中文翻译：

---

一种新型的深海噬菌体具有Wbeta样病毒和噬菌体的特征。

作为最丰富的生物实体，病毒是海洋生态系统的主要参与者。但是，我们对深海病毒-宿主相互作用和病毒生态学的了解仍然非常有限。在这项研究中，从深海沉积物中分离出一种新型的噬菌体（命名为噬菌体BVE2）感染蜡样芽胞杆菌类细菌。噬菌体BVE2在感染后1.5小时内引起宿主裂解。但是，在BVE2基因组中存在两个整合酶编码基因，这表明BVE2也可能遵循温和策略。噬菌体BVE2的基因组长度约为20 kb，预计可编码28种蛋白质。基因组和系统发育分析表明，BVE2是高度嵌合的噬菌体，已从Wbeta样病毒，蜡状芽孢杆菌及其宿主继承了遗传特征。提示在其进化过程中频繁发生水平基因转移事件。这项研究将有助于揭示Wbeta样病毒的进化史，并增进我们对深海病毒多样性和病毒-宿主相互作用的了解。