Subfamily: Bastillevirinae

Genus: Bequatrovirus

 

Distinguishing features

Genomes vary from 162 to 167 kbp with 272–301 genes. Terminal repeats of 2.5–3 kbp have been reported for some bequatrovirus genomes (Erill and Caruso 2015b). The unique sequence of Bacillus phage B4, the exemplar isolate of the representative species Bequatrovirus B4, is 162 596 bp. No encoded tRNAs have been found (Lee et al., 2013). Members of the genus infect Bacillus cereus and Bacillus thuringiensis.

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.