Cocultivation of an ultrasmall environmental parasitic bacterium with lytic ability against bacteria associated with wastewater foams

Here we assemble the complete genomes of Gordonia amarae and a previously undescribed species, Gordonia pseudoamarae, to examine mechanisms encouraging stable foam production. We show that both of these species are recalcitrant to phage infection via a number of anti-viral mechanisms including restriction, CRISPR-Cas and bacteriophage exclusion. Instead, we isolate and cocultivate an environmental ultrasmall epiparasitic bacterium from the phylum Saccharibacteria that lyses G. amarae and G. pseudoamarae, and a number of other Mycolata commonly associated with wastewater foams. The application of this parasitic bacterium, Candidatus Mycosynbacter amalyticus, may represent a promising strategy for the biocontrol of bacteria responsible for stabilising wastewater foams.