Genome-Based Identification of Active Prophage Regions by Next Generation Sequencing in Bacillus licheniformis DSM13

Prophages are viruses, which have integrated their genomes into the genome of a bacterial host. The status of the prophage genome can vary from fully intact with the potential to form infective particles to a remnant state where only a few phage genes persist. Prophages have impact on the properties of their host and are therefore of great interest for genomic research and strain design. Here we present a genome- and next generation sequencing (NGS)-based approach for identification and activity evaluation of prophage regions. Seven prophage or prophage-like regions were identified in the genome of Bacillus licheniformis DSM13. Six of these regions show similarity to members of the Siphoviridae phage family. The remaining region encodes the B. licheniformis orthologue of the PBSX prophage from Bacillus subtilis. Analysis of isolated phage particles (induced by mitomycin C) from the wild-type strain and prophage deletion mutant strains revealed activity of the prophage regions BLi_Pp2 (PBSX-like), BLi_Pp3 and BLi_Pp6. In contrast to BLi_Pp2 and BLi_Pp3, neither phage DNA nor phage particles of BLi_Pp6 could be visualized. However, the ability of prophage BLi_Pp6 to generate particles could be confirmed by sequencing of particle-protected DNA mapping to prophage locus BLi_Pp6. The introduced NGS-based approach allows the investigation of prophage regions and their ability to form particles. Our results show that this approach increases the sensitivity of prophage activity analysis and can complement more conventional approaches such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM).