Infection and Drug Resistance (Apr 2022)

Characterization and Genomic Analysis of a Novel Drexlervirial Bacteriophage IME268 with Lytic Activity Against Klebsiella pneumoniae

  • Nazir A,
  • Qi C,
  • Shi N,
  • Gao X,
  • Feng Q,
  • Qing H,
  • Li F,
  • Tong Y

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 1533 – 1546

Abstract

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Amina Nazir,1– 3 Chunling Qi,4 Na Shi,4 Xue Gao,4 Qiang Feng,4 Hong Qing,2 Fei Li,3,4 Yigang Tong3 1Institute of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, Shandong Province, People’s Republic of China; 2Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine and Biotherapy in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Department of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 3College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, People’s Republic of China; 4Clinical Laboratory Center, The Affiliated Taian City Central Hospital of Qingdao University, Taian, 271000, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Fei Li; Yigang Tong, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Soft Matter Science and Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Klebsiella pneumoniae, a multidrug resistant bacterium, that causes nosocomial infections including septicemia, pneumonia etc. Bacteriophages are potential antimicrobial agents for the treatment of antibiotic resistant bacteria.Methods and Results: In this study, a novel bacteriophage IME268 was isolated from hospital sewage against clinical multi-drug resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. Transmission electron microscopy and genomic characterization of this phage exhibited it belongs to the Webervirus genus, Drexlerviridae family. Phage IME268 possessed a double-stranded DNA genome composed of 49,552bp with a GC content of 50.5%. The phage genome encodes 77 open reading frames, out of 44 are hypothetical proteins while 33 had assigned putative functions. No tRNA, virulence related or antibiotic resistance genes were found in phage genome. Comparative genomic analysis showed that phage IME268 has 95% identity with 87% query cover with other phages in NCBI database. Multiplicity of infection, one step growth curve and host range of phage were also measured.Conclusion: According to findings, Phage IME268 is a promising biological agent that infects Klebsiella pneumoniae and can be used in future phage therapies.Keywords: Klebsiella pneumoniae, bacteriophage, therapy, lytic, drug resistant

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