Biodiversity, Isolation and Sequencing of Lactococcus lactis Bacteriophages from Dairy Industry Plants in Russia

Starter culture lysis by Lactococcus lactis bacteriophages is one of the leading causes of the fermentation failure in dairy industry. In the present work we performed a PCR grouping of lactophages identified in 73 samples of milk whey obtained from industrial facilities located in Russia. From these samples we isolated 10 novel L. lactis bacteriophages associated with the fermentation failure in different regions of the Russian Federation. The genomes of these bacteriophage isolates are closely related and similar to the known c2-like phages (Ceduovirus genus). However, the allelic variants of the receptor recognition proteins found in these genomes were different.