Bacteriophage最新文献

This study describes the genome of temperate Siphoviridae phage DW2, which is routinely propagated on Staphylococcus aureus DPC5246. The 41941 bp genome revealed an open reading frame (ORF1) which has a high level of homology with members of the resolvase subfamily of site-specific serine recombinase, involved in chromosomal integration and excision. In contrast, the majority of staphylococcal phages reported to date encode tyrosine recombinases. Two putative genes encoded by phage DW2 (ORF15 and ORF24) were highly homologous to the NWMN0273 and NWMN0280 genes encoding virulence factors carried on the genome of ϕNM4, a prophage in the genome of S. aureus Newman. Phage DW2 also encodes proteins highly homologous to two well-characterized Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity island derepressors encoded by the staphylococcal helper phage 80α indicating that it may similarly act as a helper phage for mobility of pathogenicity islands in S. aureus. This study also focused on the enzybiotic potential of phage DW2. The structure of the putative endolysin and tail hydrolase were investigated and used as the basis for a cloning strategy to create recombinant peptidoglycan hydrolyzing proteins. After overexpression in E. coli, four of these proteins (LysDW2, THDW2, CHAP_E1-153, and CHAP_E1-163) were demonstrated to have hydrolytic activity against peptidoglycan of S. aureus and thus represent novel candidates for exploitation as enzybiotics.

Advances in phage therapy encourage scientific interest in interactions of phages with human and animal organisms. This has created a need for developing tools that facilitate studies of phage circulation and deposition in tissues and cells. Here we propose a new green fluorescent protein (GFP)-based method for T4 phage molecular imaging in living systems. The method employs decoration of a phage capsid with GFP fused to the N-terminus of Hoc protein by in vivo phage display. Fluorescent phages were positively assessed as regards their applicability for detection inside living mammalian cells (by phagocytosis) and tissues (filtering and retention by lymph nodes and spleen). Molecular imaging provides innovative techniques that have brought substantial progress in life sciences. We propose it as a useful tool for studies of phage biology.

Bacterial contamination of food products presents a challenge for the food industry and poses a high risk for the consumer. Despite increasing awareness and improved hygiene measures, foodborne pathogens remain a threat for public health, and novel methods for detection of these organisms are needed. Bacteriophages represent ideal tools for diagnostic assays because of their high target cell specificity, inherent signal-amplifying properties, easy and inexpensive production, and robustness. Every stage of the phage lytic multiplication cycle, from the initial recognition of the host cell to the final lysis event, may be harnessed in several ways for the purpose of bacterial detection. Besides intact phage particles, phage-derived affinity molecules such as cell wall binding domains and receptor binding proteins can serve for this purpose. This review provides an overview of existing phage-based technologies for detection of foodborne pathogens, and highlights the most recent developments in this field, with particular emphasis on phage-based biosensors.

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics is an emerging threat requiring urgent solutions. Ever since their discovery, lytic bacteriophages have been suggested as therapeutic agents, but their application faces various obstacles: sequestration of the phage by the spleen and liver, antibodies against the phage, narrow host range, poor accessibility to the infected tissue, and bacterial resistance. Variations on bacteriophage use have been suggested, such as temperate phages as gene-delivery vehicles into pathogens. This approach, which is proposed to sensitize pathogens residing on hospital surfaces and medical personnel's skin, and its prospects are described in this addendum. Furthermore, phage-encoded products have been proposed as weapons against antibiotic resistance in bacteria. We describe a new phage protein which was identified during basic research into T7 bacteriophages. This protein may serendipitously prove useful for treating antibiotic-resistant pathogens. We believe that further basic research will lead to novel strategies in the fight against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Many bacteriophages produce small proteins that specifically interfere with the bacterial host transcription machinery and thus contribute to the acquisition of the bacterial cell by the bacteriophage. We recently described how a small protein, called P7, produced by the Xp10 bacteriophage inhibits bacterial transcription initiation by causing the dissociation of the promoter specificity sigma factor subunit from the host RNA polymerase holoenzyme. In this addendum to the original publication, we present the highlights of that research.

Viruses are the most abundant biological entities on the planet, yet most classical principles of evolutionary biology and ecology were not developed with viruses in mind. Here, the concept of biological tradeoffs, a fundamental tenet of life history theory, is examined in the context of bacteriophage biology. Specifically, several important parameters of phage life histories-replication, persistence, host range, and adsorption-are evaluated for tradeoffs. Available data indicate that replication rate is strongly negatively correlated with both persistence and host range, suggesting that the well-documented tradeoff in macroorganisms between offspring production and offspring quality also applies to phages. The biological tradeoffs that appear to characterize viruses' life histories have potential importance for viral evolution, ecology, and pathogenesis.

The sequencing of marine metagenomic fosmids led to the discovery of several new complete phage genomes. Among the 21 major sequence groups, 10 totally novel groups of marine phages could be identified. Some of these represent the first phages infecting large marine prokaryotic phyla, such as the Verrucomicrobia and the recently described Ca. Actinomarinales. Coming from a single deep photic zone sample the diversity of phages found is astonishing, and the comparison with a metavirome from the same location indicates that only 2% of the real diversity was recovered. In addition to this large macro-diversity, rich micro-diversity was also found, affecting host-recognition modules, mirroring the variation of cell surface components in their host marine microbes.

Extensive research is currently being conducted on the use of bacteriophages for applications in human medicine, agriculture and food manufacturing. However, phages are important vehicles of horisontal gene transfer and play a significant role in bacterial evolution. As a result, concern has been raised that this increased use and dissemination of phages could result in spread of deleterious genes, e.g., antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. Meanwhile, in the wake of the genomic era, several tools have been developed for characterization of bacterial genomes. Here we describe how two of these tools, ResFinder and VirulenceFinder, can be used to identify acquired antibiotic resistance and virulence genes in phage genomes of interest. The general applicability of the tools is demonstrated on data sets of 1,642 phage genomes and 1,442 predicted prophages.

The lysogenic state of the λ switch is exceptionally stable, still, it is capable of responding to DNA-damage and rapidly enter the lytic state. We invented an assay where PNA mediated tethering of a plasmid allowed for single molecule investigations of the effect of supercoiling on the efficiency of the epigenetic λ switch. Compared with non-supercoiled DNA, the presence of supercoils enhances the CI-mediated DNA looping probability and renders the transition between the looped and unlooped states steeper, thus increasing the Hill coefficient. Interestingly, the transition occurs exactly at the CI concentration corresponding to the minimum number of CI molecules capable of maintaining the pRM-repressed state. Based on these results we propose that supercoiling maintains the pRM-repressible state as CI concentration decline during induction and thus prevent autoregulation of cI from interfering with induction.