A rapid and simple protocol for the isolation of bacteriophages from coastal organisms
Alex Echeverría-Vega,
Pablo Morales-Vicencio,
Camila Saez-Saavedra,
Felipe Gordillo-Fuenzalida,
Rubén Araya
Affiliations
Alex Echeverría-Vega
Vicerrectoría de Investigación y Postgrado, Universidad Católica del Maule, Avda. San Miguel 3605, Talca, Chile
Pablo Morales-Vicencio
Laboratorio de Microbiología Costera, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Recursos Biológicos, Universidad de Antofagasta, Angamos 601, Antofagasta, Chile
Camila Saez-Saavedra
Laboratorio de Microbiología Costera, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Recursos Biológicos, Universidad de Antofagasta, Angamos 601, Antofagasta, Chile
Felipe Gordillo-Fuenzalida
Centro de Biotecnología de los Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Agronomía y Ciencias Forestales, Universidad Católica del Maule, Avda. San Miguel 3605, Talca, Chile
Rubén Araya
Instituto de Ciencias Naturales Alexander von Humboldt, Facultad de Ciencias del Mar y Recursos Biológicos, Universidad de Antofagasta, Angamos 601, Antofagasta, Chile; Corresponding author.
This work details a protocol for recovering bacteriophages from intertidal sessile mussels and testing their lytic activity against pathogenic bacteria. Although bacteriophages were highly abundant in coastal filter-feeding organisms, they were not detectable in the surrounding water column. This difference reflects the high filtering rate of the mussels, which capture and concentrate high amounts of bacteria, generating an ideal environment for bacteriophages. We validated the protocol providing a mean concentration of 4E + 04 PFU mL-1 lytic bacteriophages for the fish-pathogen bacterium Vibrio ordalii. We suggest that this method has particular utility for the recovery of bacteriophages for use as natural antimicrobial agents in aquaculture. Protocol name: Isolation of bacteriophages from coastal zone, Keywords: Vibrio bacteriophage, Phage prospection, Phage isolation