Comparative genome analysis of a new Tequintavirus isolated on Salmonella enterica serotype Tennessee

Objective: The rise in multidrug-resistant pathogenic bacteria presents a major current challenge, highlighting the urgent need for alternatives and sustainable biocontrol strategies. We aimed to isolate a bacteriophage against Salmonella entericaserotype Tennessee sequence type 5018, a food-processing pathogen. Results: We report the genome analysis of Salmonella phage Tennessee Salten, a new species from the Tequintavirus genus. Its genome is 109,999 bp in length and contains 197 predicted coding sequences and 23 tRNAs. Compared to its closest known relative phage Escherichia phage HildyBeyeler - sharing 84.6% identity - Salten harbours 16 unique or highly divergent genes. Of these, 13 encode proteins with unknown function, one encodes for a putative adenine methyltransferase and two encode HNH homing endonucleases. Moreover, the Long Tail Fibre protein, whose structure was predicted based on that of phage T5, was highly divergent among the Tequintavirus genus.