Weberviruses are gut-associated phages that infect Klebsiella spp.

Weberviruses are bacteriophages (phages) that have been shown to infect and lyse members of the genus Klebsiella . Due to their antimicrobial properties, phages and their products have emerged as a potential therapeutic option to help tackle increasing rates of antimicrobial resistance amongst Klebsiella spp. Weberviruses are an attractive option due to their high burst sizes, long shelf life and associated depolymerase enzymes. In this study we isolated and characterized seven new weberviruses and compared their genomes with those of their closest relatives to further our understanding of the genus Webervirus . We show that the seven phages isolated in this study can lyse a range of clinical multidrug-resistant Klebsiella strains, including K. variicola . Gene-sharing network-based analysis using vConTACT2 and incorporating all publicly available webervirus genomes (n=67) confirmed the seven phages as members of the genus Webervirus and that weberviruses are affiliated with the family Drexlerviridae . Using the online resource PhageClouds, we demonstrated that weberviruses can be readily detected in metagenome-derived phage datasets from a diverse range of geographical locations. Using a curated database of 67 isolated phage genomes and 60 metagenome-assembled genomes (n=127 total), we found that weberviruses are primarily associated with samples originating from the gut, with human faeces (61/127, 48 %), sewage (39/127, 31 %) and wastewater (14/127, 11 %) being the most frequent sources of these phages.