Abstract
The virulent phage ST32 that infects the Escherichia coli strain ST130 was isolated from a wastewater sample in China and analyzed. Morphological observations showed that phage ST32 belongs to the Myoviridae family, as it has an icosahedral capsid and long contractile tail. Host range analysis showed that it exhibits a broad range of hosts including non-pathogenic and pathogenic E. coli strains. Interestingly, phage ST32 had a much larger burst size when amplified at 20 °C as compared to 30 °C or 37 °C. Its double-stranded DNA genome was sequenced and found to contain 53,092 bp with a GC content of 44.14%. Seventy-nine open reading frames (ORFs) were identified and annotated as well as a tRNA-Arg. Only nineteen ORFs were assigned putative functions. A phylogenetic tree using the large terminase subunit revealed a close relatedness with four unclassified Myoviridae phages. A comparative genomic analysis of these phages showed that the Enterobacteria phage phiEcoM-GJ1 is the closest relative to ST32 and shares the same new branch in the phylogenetic tree. Still, these two phages share only 47 of 79 ORFs with more than 90% identity. Phage ST32 has unique characteristics that make it a potential biological control agent under specific conditions.
Highlights
Pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a common zoonotic agent that poses a significant threat to public health and safety
ST32which was isolated from wastewater using the pathogenic host can beIn separated into three distinct groups, is consistent with their three-branch division in the Morphological and genomic characterization showed that phage
Morphological and genomic characterization showed that phage ST32 belongs to the Myoviridae family
Summary
Pathogenic Escherichia coli (E. coli) is a common zoonotic agent that poses a significant threat to public health and safety. STEC infection can result in diseases such as diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, and hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS) in humans and animals. These diseases are subjected to various pharmaceutical treatments including antibiotics, such as ampicillin, streptomycin, sulfonamides, and oxytetracycline [4,5]. It is well-known that the use of antibiotics can lead to the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the environment, which poses a risk to human health [6,7,8]. This bacterial species has a great capacity to accumulate antibiotic resistance genes, mostly through horizontal gene transfer [10,11]
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