Bacillus pumilus 15.1, a Strain Active against Ceratitis capitata, Contains a Novel Phage and a Phage-Related Particle with Bacteriocin Activity Fernández Fernández, Alberto Osuna Carrillo De Albornoz, Antonio Vílchez Tornero, Susana Bacillus pumilus Bacteriophage Bacteriocin activity PBSX Entomopathogen This research was partially funded by the Andalucian Operative Program, grant number B-BIO-081-UGR18. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. A 98.1 Kb genomic region from B. pumilus 15.1, a strain isolated as an entomopathogen toward C. capitata, the Mediterranean fruit fly, has been characterised in search of potential virulence factors. The 98.1 Kb region shows a high number of phage-related protein-coding ORFs. Two regions with different phylogenetic origins, one with 28.7 Kb in size, highly conserved in Bacillus strains, and one with 60.2 Kb in size, scarcely found in Bacillus genomes are differentiated. The content of each region is thoroughly characterised using comparative studies. This study demonstrates that these two regions are responsible for the production, after mitomycin induction, of a phage-like particle that packages DNA from the host bacterium and a novel phage for B. pumilus, respectively. Both the phage-like particles and the novel phage are observed and characterised by TEM, and some of their structural proteins are identified by protein fingerprinting. In addition, it is found that the phage-like particle shows bacteriocin activity toward other B. pumilus strains. The effect of the phage-like particles and the phage in the toxicity of the strain toward C. capitata is also evaluated. 2021-09-29T07:07:50Z 2021-09-29T07:07:50Z 2021-07-29 journal article Fernández-Fernández, A.; Osuna, A.; Vilchez, S. Bacillus pumilus 15.1, a Strain Active against Ceratitis capitata, Contains a Novel Phage and a Phage-Related Particle with Bacteriocin Activity. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2021, 22, 8164. [https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22158164] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/70508 10.3390/ijms22158164 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ open access Atribución 3.0 España MDPI