Isolation and Characterization of Novel Lytic Bacteriophage vB_RsoP_BMB50 infecting Ralstonia solanacearum

Ralstonia solanacearum is a soil-borne phytopathogen, and it can cause bacterial wilt disease in a variety of key crops around the world, thus resulting in enormous financial losses. However, there is a lack of effective, green, and safe prevention and control measures against increasingly devastating bacterial wilt disease. Bacteriophages (phages) are considered as potential biocontrol agents against bacterial wilt disease. Although many phages infecting R. solanacearum have been isolated, so far, these Ralstonia phages are still insufficient to deal with the diversity of the bacteria of R. solanacearum. In this study, a novel lytic bacteriophage vB_RsoP_BMB50 infecting multiple R. solanacearum was isolated from tomato fields in Dalian, China. Transmission electron microscopy and genomics analysis indicated that vB_RsoP_BMB50 belonged to the subfamily Okabevirinae, Autographiviridae family, and order Caudovirales, and it comprised a double-stranded DNA with a full length of 43,665 bp and a mean G+C content of 61.79%, containing 53 open reading frames (ORFs). This novel phage exhibited a large burst size, high temperature stability (4-50 °C), and strong pH tolerance (pH 5-10). Comparative analyses and phylogenetic analyses revealed that vB_RsoP_BMB50 represented a novel Ralstonia phage genus since it exhibited a low sequence similarity to other phages in the GenBank database. Due to its broad lytic spectrum, high thermal stability, and strong pH tolerance, vB_RsoP_BMB50 is considered as an effective candidate biocontrol agent against bacterial wilt disease caused by R. solanacearum.