Identification and Characterization of a Bacteriophage with Lytic Activity against Multidrug Resistant E. coli

Abstract

Escherichia coli strains are increasingly becoming resistant to antibiotics and emerging globally. Bacteriophage is re-explored for the development of an alternative and safe agent to control a bacterial infection, especially with multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. Here, we reported the identification of AAA1 phage from a sewage site near Baghdad’s Medical City. Morphological analysis using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) suggested that the AAA1 phage had an icosahedral head of width ~ 70 nm and a non-contractile tail of ~ 400 nm belonging to the Siphoviridae family from the Caudovirales order. The plaque observation showed that plaques size and shape differ after prolonged incubation. The optimal multiplicity of infection was 0.1. The one-step growth curve was assessed and the result showed that AAA1 latent period was 10 minutes; burst size was 93PFU/cell and the burst period of 30 minutes. Based on characteristics, AAA1 phage is a potential candidate to control MDR E. coli infection.

Keywords

• Pathogenic E. coli
• bacteriophages
• phage therapy
• sewage