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Biological characteristics of a virulent bacteriophage φEn-ZZ8 isolated from Enterococcus faecalis |
ZHANG Zhe, LI Jing-Hua, LU Yin-Yin, HAN Fang, LI Shi-Heng, SUN Yan-Bo |
Department of Pathogenobiology, Basic Medical School of Jilin University, Changchun, 130021, China |
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Abstract This study aims to isolate lytic bacteriophages from Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis),analyze its biological characteristics and to establish the research basis for a phagebased therapy against Enterococcus infections. A lytic bacteriophage (named φEn-ZZ8) was isolated from the sewage using doubleagar method and its basic biological characteristics were analyzed. The results showed that φEn-ZZ8 had an icosahedral head of 40 nm in diameter and a filamentous tail of 200 nm in length. The adsorption rate of φEn-ZZ8 reached 90% in 10 min. Onestep growth showed that φEn-ZZ8 had a short latency period of 15 min, a rise period of 40 min, and a burst size of 150 pfu/cell. The genome of φEn-ZZ8 was sensitive to HindIII, EcoRV, NdeI, PstI, Xba I and Sac II, and the size of the genome was estimated to be 42 kb. Sodium dodecyl sulfatepolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) revealed that at least 14 proteins were observed on the gel, ranging from 11 000 to 130 000. The bacteriophage specifically infected and lysed 30.8% E. faecalis isolates. The φEn-ZZ8 also exhibited stability to the wide range of pH and temperature. The data suggest that phage φEn-ZZ8 may be a candidate therapeutic agent to control Enterococcus infections.
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Received: 25 August 2014
Published: 25 August 2015
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Corresponding Authors:
SUN Yan-Bo
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