Some clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa stored in our
culture collection did not grow or grew poorly and showed lysis on the culture plates
when removed from the collection and inoculated on MacConkey agar. One hypothesis was
that bacteriophages had infected and killed those clinical isolates. To check the
best storage conditions to maintain viable P. aeruginosa for a
longer time, clinical isolates were stored at various temperatures and were grown
monthly. We investigated the presence of phage in 10 clinical isolates of P.
aeruginosa stored in our culture collection. Four strains of P.
aeruginosa were infected by phages that were characterized by electron
microscopy and isolated to assess their ability to infect. The best condition to
maintain the viability of the strains during storage was in water at room
temperature. Three Siphoviridae and two Myoviridae phages were visualized and
characterized by morphology. We confirmed the presence of bacteriophages infecting
clinical isolates, and their ability to infect and lyse alternative hosts. Strain
PAO1, however, did not show lysis to any phage. Mucoid and multidrug resistant
strains of P. aeruginosa showed lysis to 50% of the phages
tested.
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