Isolation and Characterization of Salmonella Jumbo-Phage pSal-SNUABM-04.

Sang Wha Kim,Sang Guen Kim,Jun Kwon,Hyoun Joong Kim,Se Chang Park,Sib Sankar Giri,Sung Bin Lee

doi:10.3390/v13010027

Abstract

The increasing emergence of antimicrobial resistance has become a global issue. Therefore, many researchers have attempted to develop alternative antibiotics. One promising alternative is bacteriophage. In this study, we focused on a jumbo-phage infecting Salmonella isolated from exotic pet markets. Using a Salmonella strain isolated from reptiles as a host, we isolated and characterized the novel jumbo-bacteriophage pSal-SNUABM-04. This phage was investigated in terms of its morphology, host infectivity, growth and lysis kinetics, and genome. The phage was classified as Myoviridae based on its morphological traits and showed a comparatively wide host range. The lysis efficacy test showed that the phage can inhibit bacterial growth in the planktonic state. Genetic analysis revealed that the phage possesses a 239,626-base pair genome with 280 putative open reading frames, 76 of which have a predicted function and 195 of which have none. By genome comparison with other jumbo phages, the phage was designated as a novel member of Machinavirus composed of Erwnina phages.

Highlights

Bacteriophages are virus that can infect and lyse bacterial cells [1,2]
The ability of the phage to infect a wide host range likely involves many genes encoding factors important in DNA replication and nucleotide metabolism, similar to other jumbo-phages examined in previous studies [3,5]
Of 12 replication and nucleotide metabolism, similar to other jumbo-phages examined in previous studies [3,5]

Summary

Introduction

Bacteriophages are virus that can infect and lyse bacterial cells [1,2]. These bacterial viruses are considered promising alternatives to antibiotics because of their unique characteristics [1,2]. Phages with genomes larger than 200 kbp are known as jumbo-phages [3] Because of their large genomes, jumbo-phages are highly diverse [3,4] and possess a larger number of genes in comparison to phages with shorter genomes [3]. These gene products may reduce the utilization of host proteins and make them less dependent on the host strains, making giant phages enable to have a wider host range [3,5]. Many jumbo-phage genomes remain uncharacterized, these bacterial viruses provide important clues for understanding bacteriophages in general [3,4,5]

Methods

Results

Conclusion