Characterization of Myoviridae and Podoviridae family bacteriophages of Erwinia amylovora from Hungary - potential of application in biological control of fire blight

Abstract

3Twelve bacteriophage isolates of Erwinia amylovora, the causal agent of fire blight, were isolated from blighted 4 apple, pear and quince trees from different sites in Hungary. According to morphological characteristics they 5 were assigned to the order Caudovirales, two isolates belonging to the Podoviridae and ten to the Myoviridae 6 families. Examining plaque morphology, host range and molecular characterization by PCR established that 7 these phages are not identical neither to the three North American strains used as references nor the earlier 8 isolated Hungarian Siphoviridae strains. Studying the efficacy of selected phages in apple blossoms and green 9 pear fruit slices it was found that a combination of three phage isolates (ΦEaH2A, ΦEaH5K and ΦEaH7B)

First Report of Filamentous Phages Isolated from Tunisian Orchards to Control Erwinia amylovora

“…Given the global uncertainty around food security, there is a major effort to understand how phages can shape microbial communities to disadvantage pathogenic bacteria on crop plants. To date, several E. amylovora phages, all belonging to the Podoviridae and the Myoviridae families, have been isolated from different orchards of pear and apple around the world, and were shown to decrease bacterial virulence [ 8 , 10 , 13 ].…”

“…Effects of the phage cocktail were tested on unripe fruit slices (10 slices/treatment) of Pyrus communis L. conference pear cultivar, as described by Schwarczinger et al [ 13 ]. Pears were rated after seven days for symptoms by measuring the infected area and calculating the percentage of infected tissue.…”

“…After incubation for four days, bacteria were reisolated from flowers and resulted in a bacterial decrease of at least 45%. More recently, the same group isolated phages from different sites in Hungary and they tested them in a pear slice bioassay, which yielded a 25% reduction in infection [ 13 ].…”

Pantoea Bacteriophage vB_PagS_Vid5: A Low-Temperature Siphovirus That Harbors a Cluster of Genes Involved in the Biosynthesis of Archaeosine

“…Both of these Pantoea phages, namely bacteriophages LIMElight and LIMEzero, are classified within the Autographivirinae subfamily of the Podoviridae . However, a number of broad-host range Erwinia or Serratia phages have been reported to be able to infect bacteria from the genus Pantoea [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 16 ]. To our knowledge, all of these bacteriophages, with the exception of siphoviruses PhiEaH1 [ 12 ], PhiEaH2 [ 13 ], KEY [ 14 ], and phiOT8 [ 16 ], have been assigned to the families Myoviridae or Podoviridae .…”

“…Nevertheless, it has been shown that a number of completely sequenced Erwinia bacteriophages are active on bacteria from the genus Pantoea [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ]. It is not surprising, because Pantoea is closely related to Tatumella and Erwinia , the three forming a monophyletic group nested within the other enterobacterial genera, such as Escherichia , Salmonella , Citrobacter , Enterobacter , Klebsiella, and Cronobacter [ 1 , 10 , 11 ].…”