Subfamily: Twortvirinae

Genus: Baoshanvirus

Distinguishing features

There are only two species in this genus – Baoshanvirus BS1 and Baoshanvirus BS2.  Staphylococcus phage phiSA_BS2 (the exemplar isolate of Staphylococcus virus BS2) has a genome of 149 kbp with 210 predicted protein coding sequences and 1 encoded tRNA. Members of the genus infect Staphylococcus aureus. Their infectivity for staphylococci of other species has not been studied.

Species demarcation criteria

Members of the same species are more than 95% identical in genome nucleotide sequence, including the terminal repeat region. Phages with genomes that differ by more than 5% are assigned to different species.