This report presents the characterization of the first virulent phages infecting Brevibacterium aurantiacum, a bacterial species used during the manufacture of surface‐ripened cheeses. These phages were also responsible for flavour and colour defects in surface‐ripened cheeses. Sixteen phages (out of 62 isolates) were selected for genome sequencing and comparative analyses. These cos‐type phages with a long non‐contractile tail currently belong to the Siphoviridae family (Caudovirales order). Their genome sizes vary from 35,637 to 36,825 bp and, similar to their host, have a high GC content (~61%). Genes encoding for an immunity repressor, an excisionase and a truncated integrase were found, suggesting that these virulent phages may be derived from a prophage. Their genomic organization is highly conserved, with most of the diversity coming from the presence of long (198 bp) DNA tandem repeats (TRs) within an open reading frame coding for a protein of unknown function. We categorized these phages into seven genomic groups according to their number of TR, which ranged from two to eight. Moreover, we showed that TRs are widespread in phage genomes, found in more than 85% of the genomes available in public databases.

中文翻译：

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DNA串联重复序列有助于金黄色短杆菌噬菌体的遗传多样性。

本报告介绍了感染最早出现在表面成熟的奶酪中的细菌种-短杆菌（Brevibacterium aurantiacum）的特征。这些噬菌体也是造成表面熟化的奶酪的风味和颜色缺陷的原因。选择了十六个噬菌体（62个分离株中）用于基因组测序和比较分析。这些尾巴较长的co型噬菌体目前属于Siphoviridae家族（Caudovirales订购）。它们的基因组大小从35637 bp到36825 bp不等，并且与宿主相似，具有较高的GC含量（〜61％）。发现了编码免疫抑制因子，切除酶和截短整合酶的基因，表明这些有毒的噬菌体可能来自噬菌体。他们的基因组组织是高度保守的，大部分多样性来自在开放阅读框内编码功能未知蛋白质的长（198 bp）DNA串联重复序列（TR）的存在。根据TR的数量，我们将这些噬菌体分为七个基因组，范围从两个到八个。此外，我们表明TRs在噬菌体基因组中很普遍，在公共数据库中超过85％的基因组中都可以找到。