We live in a microbial-driven world where bacteriophages are considered as the most profuse biological entity on Earth. However, despite their abundance and omnipresence in the ocean, there is a knowledge gap regarding the marine virome but also the interaction between bacteriophages and their bacterial host. While most studies in the field have focused on metagenomic approaches, this thesis aims at increasing the culture effort of marine bacteria originating from different water layers of the North Atlantic, to allow for phage-hosts system experimentations. Here, 16S rRNA sequencing was performed to assign taxonomy up to the genus level of marine cultured bacteria. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was used to screen for prophages and potential prophage-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes (AMGs) in 15 selected bacterial isolates. Sequencing effort enabled classifying 67 isolates to 17 different genera. Meanwhile the WGS allowed detecting 4 AMGs namely 2 in epipelagic Algoriphagus aquimarinus, 1 in Nocardioides salaries and 1 Acinetobacter fasciculus originating from bathypelagic waters. While this study is at its preliminary stage, there is a potential to use it as a foundation for future inquiries focusing on the association of phage AMGs to their host and the environmental drivers of prophage composition and distribution.
