# Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Cyanophage Encoding Multiple Auxiliary Metabolic Genes  
[PERSON]  
1 Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Marine Algal Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.R.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.L.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (K.X.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (Y.X.) 1  
[PERSON]  
2 Department of Ocean Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong 999077, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] 2  
[PERSON]  
1 Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Marine Algal Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.R.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.L.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (K.X.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (Y.X.) 1  
[PERSON]  
1 Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Marine Algal Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.R.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.L.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (K.X.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (Y.X.) 1  
[PERSON]  
1 Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Marine Algal Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (C.R.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (S.L.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (K.X.); [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (Y.X.) 1  
[PERSON]  
3 State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (Y.Z.) 1  
[PERSON]  
3 State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China; [EMAIL_ADDRESS] (Y.Z.) 1  
[PERSON]  
3 State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Fujian Key Laboratory of Marine Carbon Sequestration, College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361102, China; ruizhang@xmu.  
that infect dominant bacterial groups, will provide important opportunities to advance the understanding of viral-induced cellular mechanisms and their biogeochemical impact. As representative systems for virus-host interactions research, cyanophages generally encode auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) which can influence the metabolism of infected cells by expressing AMGs and are thought to enhance cyanophages fitness in marine environments [13; 14; 15]. To date, cyanophage-encoded AMGs are always involved in photosynthesis, carbon metabolism, cycling of nutrients (such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur), nucleic acid synthesis and metabolism, and stress tolerance [16; 17; 18; 19; 20]. However, only the most essential AMGs are likely to be maintained in phage genomes on account of high cost; therefore, the genomic content of AMGs in cyanophages may provide important clues to environmental selection and evolution [15; 21].  
In this study, we reported the discovery and characterization of a novel cyanophage S-SZBM1, which infects _Synechococcus_ CB0101. The host used in this study was isolated from the Chesapeake estuary and has been deeply explored regarding its distribution, genome features, and responses to environmental stresses [22; 23; 24]. Therefore, _Synechococcus_ CB0101 was thought to be a good model strain for phage isolation and the investigation of phage-host interactions. To explore the potential functional linkage between cyanophage and its host, we sequenced the genome of cyanophage S-SZBM1 and identified the major structural proteins. We expect that systematic isolation and characterization of cyanophages will provide new insights into phage-host interactions in terms of their biological features, genetics, and proteomics.