TY - JOUR
T1 - Characterization and Genomic Analysis of Escherichia coli O157:H7 Phage UAE_MI-01 Isolated from Birds
AU - Sultan-Alolama, Mohamad Ismail
AU - Amin, Amr
AU - El-Tarabily, Khaled A.
AU - Vijayan, Ranjit
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by the graduate PhD program of the United Arab Emirates University (Fund number 12S060) to M.I.S.-A. and by a Zayed Center for Health Sciences grant (31R174) to A.A.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/12
Y1 - 2022/12
N2 - Verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 is responsible for the majority of foodborne outbreaks worldwide and may lead to death. Bacteriophages are natural killers of bacteria. All previously reported E. coli O157:H7 phages were isolated from ruminants or swine. Here, we report for the first time a phage isolated from bird feces in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), designated as UAE_MI-01, indicating birds as a good source of phages. Thus, phages could be a tool for predicting the presence of the host bacteria in an animal or the environment. UAE_MI-01 was found to be a lytic phage that was stable at wide ranges of pH, temperature, and chemical disinfectants, and with a burst size of almost 100 plaque-forming units per host cell after a latent period of 20 min and an adsorption rate constant (K) of 1.25 × 10−7 mL min−1. The phage genome was found to be 44,281 bp long with an average GC content of 54.7%. The presence of the phage indicates the presence of the host cell E. coli O157:H7 in wild birds. Therefore, other birds, mainly poultry, could be also investigated for the presence of this pathogenic bacterium. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an E. coli O157:H7 bacteriophage isolated from a bird.
AB - Verotoxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7 is responsible for the majority of foodborne outbreaks worldwide and may lead to death. Bacteriophages are natural killers of bacteria. All previously reported E. coli O157:H7 phages were isolated from ruminants or swine. Here, we report for the first time a phage isolated from bird feces in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), designated as UAE_MI-01, indicating birds as a good source of phages. Thus, phages could be a tool for predicting the presence of the host bacteria in an animal or the environment. UAE_MI-01 was found to be a lytic phage that was stable at wide ranges of pH, temperature, and chemical disinfectants, and with a burst size of almost 100 plaque-forming units per host cell after a latent period of 20 min and an adsorption rate constant (K) of 1.25 × 10−7 mL min−1. The phage genome was found to be 44,281 bp long with an average GC content of 54.7%. The presence of the phage indicates the presence of the host cell E. coli O157:H7 in wild birds. Therefore, other birds, mainly poultry, could be also investigated for the presence of this pathogenic bacterium. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an E. coli O157:H7 bacteriophage isolated from a bird.
KW - E. coli O157:H7
KW - bacteriophage
KW - characterization
KW - phage genome
KW - phage therapy
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U2 - 10.3390/ijms232314846
DO - 10.3390/ijms232314846
M3 - Article
C2 - 36499178
AN - SCOPUS:85143648546
SN - 1661-6596
VL - 23
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
IS - 23
M1 - 14846
ER -