Abstract
Bacteriophages that lyse Salmonella enterica are potential tools to target and control Salmonella infections. Investigating the host range of Salmonella phages is a key to understand their impact on bacterial ecology, coevolution and inform their use in intervention strategies. Virus–host infection networks have been used to characterize the “predator–prey” interactions between phages and bacteria and provide insights into host range and specificity. Here, we characterize the target-range and infection profiles of 13 Salmonella phage clones against a diverse set of 141 Salmonella strains. The environmental source and taxonomy contributed to the observed infection profiles, and genetically proximal phages shared similar infection profiles. Using in vitro infection data, we analyzed the structure of the Salmonella phage–bacteria infection network. The network has a non-random nested organization and weak modularity suggesting a gradient of target-range from generalist to specialist species with nested subsets, which are also observed within and across the different phage infection profile groups. Our results have implications for our understanding of the coevolutionary mechanisms shaping the ecological interactions between Salmonella phages and their bacterial hosts and can inform strategies for targeting Salmonella enterica with specific phage preparations.
Highlights
Salmonella enterica serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium are major foodborne pathogens of worldwide concern, which often cause severe diarrheal diseases sometimes with fatal outcomes
We analyzed the infection profiles of 13 Salmonella phage species against a set of 141 bacterial strains related to various Salmonella serovars (Supplementary data file 1)
The most common resistance profile was ACSSuTSh, which was mainly associated with Salmonella Typhimurium, many of which have additional resistance to Trimethoprim (ACSSuTTmSh)
Summary
Salmonella enterica serovars Enteritidis and Typhimurium are major foodborne pathogens of worldwide concern, which often cause severe diarrheal diseases sometimes with fatal outcomes. According to the WHO report, 550 million people are infected annually, including 220 million children under the age of five [1] The majority of these cases of domestically acquired salmonellosis are caused by various Salmonella serovars transmitted through the food chain (The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) [2]. In post-Soviet Union countries, phage preparations have a long history of application for treatment and prophylaxis against dysenterial diseases, such as shigellosis, escherichiosis, and salmonellosis. These preparations have been successfully used for prophylaxis of salmonellosis among civilian population as well as in Red Army units [4,5,6]. Investigating the host range of Salmonella phages is a key to understand their impact on bacterial ecology, coevolution and inform intervention strategies
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