In:
Journal of General Virology, Microbiology Society, Vol. 95, No. 11 ( 2014-11-01), p. 2565-2575
Abstract:
We isolated and characterized a novel virulent bacteriophage, IME-EFm1, specifically infecting multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecium . IME-EFm1 is morphologically similar to members of the family Siphoviridae . It was found capable of lysing a wide range of our E. faecium collections, including two strains resistant to vancomycin. One-step growth tests revealed the host lysis activity of phage IME-EFm1, with a latent time of 30 min and a large burst size of 116 p.f.u. per cell. These biological characteristics suggested that IME-EFm1 has the potential to be used as a therapeutic agent. The complete genome of IME-EFm1 was 42 597 bp, and was linear, with terminally non-redundant dsDNA and a G+C content of 35.2 mol%. The termini of the phage genome were determined with next-generation sequencing and were further confirmed by nuclease digestion analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a complete genome sequence of a bacteriophage infecting E. faecium . IME-EFm1 exhibited a low similarity to other phages in terms of genome organization and structural protein amino acid sequences. The coding region corresponded to 90.7 % of the genome; 70 putative ORFs were deduced and, of these, 29 could be functionally identified based on their homology to previously characterized proteins. A predicted metallo-β-lactamase gene was detected in the genome sequence. The identification of an antibiotic resistance gene emphasizes the necessity for complete genome sequencing of a phage to ensure it is free of any undesirable genes before use as a therapeutic agent against bacterial pathogens.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0022-1317
,
1465-2099
DOI:
10.1099/vir.0.067553-0
Language:
English
Publisher:
Microbiology Society
Publication Date:
2014
detail.hit.zdb_id:
2007065-2
SSG:
12
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