Characterization and genome annotation of a newly detected bacteriophage infecting multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

Abstract

A novel virulent bacteriophage, φAbp2, infecting multidrug-resistant (MDR) Acinetobacter baumannii was isolated from the wastewater of a sewage management centre at Southwest Hospital, China. Transmission electron microscopy and phylogenetic analysis revealed that φAbp2 belongs to the subfamily Peduovirinae . A one-step growth curve demonstrated that φAbp2 had a latent period of 15 min, a lysis period of 35 min, and a burst size of 222 particles per infected host cell. Moreover, φAbp2 showed a relatively broad host range in local A. baumannii , and it also exhibited tolerance over a wider range of thermal and pH conditions. Genomic sequencing revealed that φAbp2 has a circular double-stranded DNA genome with no sequence similarity to our previously isolated φAbp1. Eighty-eight putative open reading frames (ORFs) encoding 41 proteins of known function and 47 of unknown function were identified, and the G/C content was 37.84%. φAbp2 is a new member of the subfamily Peduovirinae of the family Myoviridae. Its genome sequence is very similar to that of the A. baumannii phage LZ35. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s00705-019-04213-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Genomic analysis reveals high virulence and antibiotic resistance amongst phage susceptible Acinetobacter baumannii

“…We found that A. baumannii strains were more sensitive to phages from the same geographic area, since the Thai phages could not lyse A. baumannii strains isolated from Nepal. This is also consistent with previously published investigation, where one study has reported that phage-host specificity was limited to specific geographic areas 14 . Host strain AB003, which was highly susceptible to bacteriophages, was isolated from the same hospital (HE), where the phages of this study were isolated.…”

Wastewater as a fertility source for novel bacteriophages against multi-drug resistant bacteria

“…The authors reported the isolation of the lytic bacteriophage vb_kpns-Teh.1 and its specificity against K. pneumoniae , which accounts for approximately 8% of nosocomial infections. Yang et al (2019) isolated an additional novel virulent bacteriophage, φAbp2, from wastewater in China and showed that it had strong activity against MDR A. baumannii strains. The φAbp2 phage also showed a relatively wide host range against local A. baumannii strains ( Yang et al, 2019 ); however, further research is required to examine the possibility of using these phages to treat infections in vivo .…”

Novel Phage Lysin Abp013 against Acinetobacter baumannii

“…The gene of lysin Abp013 was identified from the genome of an A. baumannii bacteriophage, φAbp2, and it was annotated as a secretion activator protein (ABP2_013) under the accession number MF346584.1 [ 25 ]. The analysis of the protein sequence using the NCBI Conserved Domain Database (CDD) and Simple Modular Architecture Research Tool (SMART) [ 26 ], revealed a glycoside hydrolase family 108 at the N-terminal, while a peptidoglycan-binding domain was located at the C-terminal ( Figure 1 A).…”