Characterization and Genomic Analysis of a Lytic Vibriophage vB_VneS_S3 of Infecting Vibrio neocaledonicus

Vibrio is a prevalent marine bacteria, distinguished by their remarkable genomic flexibility. Although Vibrio neocaledonicus is well known for effectively inhibiting carbon steel corrosion, nothing is known about its viruses. This study identified a new lytic vibriophage vB_VneS_S3. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that vB_VneS_S3 is a siphoviral morphology with an icosahedral head and long non-contractile tail. It is a linear, dsDNA with a length of 76,083 bp and a G + C content of 48.97%, encodes 101 ORFs. Average nucleotide sequence identification and phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that phage vB_VneS_S3 is a new species within the genus of Mardecavirus. Biogeographic analysis revealed that vB_VneS_S3 was exclusively identified in the Arctic, where it exhibited low abundance. In conclusion, our results provided basic information about the interaction between V. neocaledonicus and viruses, increased our knowledge of phylogenetic diversity, genomic characteristics, and distribution of the novel phage.