Abstract
Biological control using bacteriophages is a promising approach for mitigating the devastating effects of coral diseases. Several phages that infect Vibrio coralliilyticus, a widespread coral pathogen, have been isolated, suggesting that this bacterium is permissive to viral infection and is, therefore, a suitable candidate for treatment by phage therapy. In this study, we combined functional and genomic approaches to evaluate the therapeutic potential of BONAISHI, a novel V. coralliilyticus phage, which was isolated from the coral reef in Van Phong Bay (Vietnam). BONAISHI appears to be strictly lytic for several pathogenic strains of V. coralliilyticus and remains infectious over a broad range of environmental conditions. This candidate has an unusually large dsDNA genome (303 kb), with no genes that encode known toxins or implicated in lysogeny control. We identified several proteins involved in host lysis, which may offer an interesting alternative to the use of whole bacteriophages for controlling V. coralliilyticus. A preliminary therapy test showed that adding BONAISHI to an infected culture of Symbiodinium sp. cells reduced the impact of V. coralliilyticus on Symbiodinium sp. photosynthetic activity. This study showed that BONAISHI is able to mitigate V. coralliilyticus infections, making it a good candidate for phage therapy for coral disease.
Highlights
Coral reefs are one of the most productive and diversified ecosystems on the planet (Connell, 1978) and they provide a wealth of ecological services as well as being economically important, supporting fisheries, tourism, and medical applications (Moberg and Folke, 1999; Hughes et al, 2003; Cooper et al, 2014)
The plaques were eluted in Salt Marine (SM) buffer, the eluent was clarified by centrifugation (7,000 g, 30 min, 4◦C), and the supernatant was filtered through 0.22 μm and stored at 4◦C until use
TEM microscopy showed that BONAISHI has an isometric capsid of 120 nm in diameter connected to a 190 nm long, contractile tail (Figure 1)
Summary
Coral reefs are one of the most productive and diversified ecosystems on the planet (Connell, 1978) and they provide a wealth of ecological services as well as being economically important, supporting fisheries, tourism, and medical applications (Moberg and Folke, 1999; Hughes et al, 2003; Cooper et al, 2014). Studies have shown that V. coralliilyticus infection is temperature dependent and infects the coral endosymbiont Symbiodinum through the production of proteases that inhibit photosynthesis This results in the loss of the endosymbiont from the coral tissues and leads to coral bleaching (Ben-Haim et al, 2003; Sussman et al, 2008, 2009; Cohen et al, 2013). With the increasing devastation of coral reefs, the development of new tools and strategies to control pathogens and treat diseased corals is becoming a major issue Biocontrol strategies, such as phage therapy, are being seriously evaluated for mitigating coral diseases (Efrony et al, 2009; Teplitski and Ritchie, 2009; Atad et al, 2012; Cohen et al, 2013)
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