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Bacteriophage data notes

Guest Editor:
Steven Batinovic: Yokohama National University, Japan


Viruses are one of the most abundant entities on earth and constitute a formidable reservoir of
nearly untapped biological and genetic diversity. The last few years have propelled viruses at the front of the scene and the whole world has had to learn about them and their importance. This situation boosted a new global interest in viruses and has led to exciting developments and discoveries. Indeed, the hunt for novel viral genomes in metagenome data sets brought a massive expansion in the number of known viruses and their genomes. Specifically, new bacteriophages genomes have been identified in the human gut, in sewage water and in fresh water. In addition, new bacteriophages have been studied and reassigned, new phage genus identified. With this collection, BMC Genomic Data welcomed bacteriophages data notes. These involved sequence genomes, OMICS datasets or were companion papers to a bigger study. 

Meet the Guest Editor

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Steven Batinovic: Yokohama National University, Japan

Dr Batinovic is a JSPS Research Fellow at Yokohama National University in Japan. His research interests lie in the fields of molecular biology and microbial genomics & bioinformatics where he focuses on the interplay between bacteria and their natural predators, either bacteriophage or other (predatory) bacteria. He believes understanding the way these predators interact with their bacterial host will ultimately allow us to harness them as biotechnology tools in medical or environmental settings.   


About the collection

Viruses are one of the most abundant entities on earth and constitute a formidable reservoir of
nearly untapped biological and genetic diversity. The last few years have propelled viruses at the front of the scene and the whole world has had to learn about them and their importance. This situation boosted a new global interest in viruses and has led to exciting developments and discoveries. Indeed, the hunt for novel viral genomes in metagenome data sets brought a massive expansion in the number of known viruses and their genomes. Specifically, new bacteriophages genomes have been identified in the human gut, in sewage water and in fresh water. In addition, new bacteriophages have been studied and reassigned, new phage genus identified. 

The hunt for new bacteriophages is on-going and exploring the diversity of bacteriophages as well as characterizing them is very exciting and of great interest for many reasons. Firstly, despite the increasing knowledge of the important role of the gut microbiome on human behavior, very little has been done to uncover the role of the gut virome in human health and diseases. The large number of phage genomes present in the phage genome databases is a great resource to enable this type of investigations on a larger scale.  Secondly because they can be used as means to discover new alternative ways to combat bacterial infections in a world where the post antibiotic era seems to be more of a reality rather than an alarmist prediction as the years go by. New bacteriophage species can provide new avenues to explore for novel antibiotic development as well as provide insights into mechanisms used by bacteriophages to infect bacteria. Thirdly, numerous bacterial virulence factors are actually phage encoded or present on phage inducible pathogenicity island, also of viral origin. Phage auxiliary metabolic genes can also act to influence bacterial metabolism. Bacteriophages are indeed vectors of horizontal gene transfer and as such they can contribute to the dispersion of antibiotic resistance gene clusters as well as toxins and influence bacterial lifestyles. 

In short, acquiring more knowledge about the diversity of bacteriophages is an important task. With this collection, BMC Genomic Data would like to attract bacteriophages data notes. These can be newly sequences genomes, OMICS datasets or companion papers to a bigger study. 
 

Image credit: SciePro / stock.adobe.com

  1. Providencia is a genus of gram-negative bacteria within the order Enterobacterales, closely related to Proteus and Morganella. While ubiquitous in the environment, some species of Providencia, such as P. rettgeri...

    Authors: Steven Batinovic, Hiu Tat Chan, Jason Stiles and Steve Petrovski
    Citation: BMC Genomic Data 2023 24:49
    Content type: Data Note Published on:

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of Data Notes primarily. In addition, original Research Articles and Database Articles will also be considered if they fit the scope of the Collection. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Bacteriophage data notes" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.