{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]],"date-time":"2026-02-23T07:11:12Z","timestamp":1771830672291,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":52,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]],"date-time":"2026-02-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1771804800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Microbiol."],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Bacteriophages are abundant and diverse components of aquatic ecosystems and contribute to the regulation of bacterial population dynamics. However,\n                      <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                      -associated tailed bacteriophages from urban aquatic environments within arid regions remain insufficiently characterized.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      We isolated and characterized\n                      <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                      phage Amjad_SA, a lytic bacteriophage infecting a\n                      <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                      isolate provisionally assigned to the\n                      <jats:italic>Pseudomonas alcaligenes<\/jats:italic>\n                      group (isolate 4L), recovered from an urban artificial pond in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The phage was analyzed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), biological assays (host range, adsorption kinetics, one-step growth, and stability tests), and whole-genome sequencing followed by annotation and phylogenetic analysis.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Phage Amjad_SA exhibited lytic activity against the host isolate and did not infect other tested Gram-negative or Gram-positive bacterial species. TEM revealed an icosahedral head (47.5 \u00b1 1.2 nm) and contractile tail (69.7 \u00b1 1.1 nm), consistent with tailed double-stranded DNA bacteriophages within the class\n                      <jats:italic>Caudoviricetes<\/jats:italic>\n                      . Under the experimental conditions tested, the phage retained infectivity following incubation at 2565 \u00b0C and across pH 59. Genomic analysis showed a linear double-stranded DNA genome of 45,788 bp with a GC content of 60.4%, encoding 72 predicted open reading frames, including genes associated with genome replication, packaging, host lysis, and virion assembly. A single tRNA-Ser (aga) gene was identified, while a substantial proportion of ORFs were annotated as hypothetical proteins.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Discussion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      These findings provide a comprehensive biological and genomic profile of phage Amjad_SA and expand the available reference framework for\n                      <jats:italic>Pseudomonas<\/jats:italic>\n                      -infecting tailed bacteriophages recovered from urban aquatic environments within arid regions.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fmicb.2026.1750744","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,23]],"date-time":"2026-02-23T06:43:42Z","timestamp":1771829022000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Isolation and genomic characterization of selective lytic Pseudomonas phage Amjad_SA from a desert urban pond in Riyadh"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Amjad N.","family":"Alotaibi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Advanced Diagnostics and Therapeutics Institute, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology","place":["Riyadh, Saudi Arabia"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fahad H.","family":"Alqahtani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Advanced Agricultural and Food Technologies Institute, Environment and Sustainability Sector, King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology","place":["Riyadh, Saudi 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