Genotyping, morphology and molecular characteristics of a lytic phage of Neisseria strain obtained from infected human dental plaque

J Microbiol. 2014 Jul;52(7):609-18. doi: 10.1007/s12275-014-3380-1. Epub 2014 May 30.

Abstract

The lytic bacteriaphage (phage) A2 was isolated from human dental plaques along with its bacterial host. The virus was found to have an icosahedron-shaped head (60±3 nm), a sheathed and rigid long tail (∼175 nm) and was categorized into the family Siphoviridae of the order Caudovirales, which are dsDNA viral family, characterised by their ability to infect bacteria and are nonenveloped with a noncontractile tail. The isolated phage contained a linear dsDNA genome having 31,703 base pairs of unique sequence, which were sorted into three contigs and 12 single sequences. A latent period of 25 minutes and burst size of 24±2 particles was determined for the virus. Bioinformatics approaches were used to identify ORFs in the genome. A phylogenetic analysis confirmed the species inter-relationship and its placement in the family.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacteriolysis
  • Bacteriophages / classification
  • Bacteriophages / genetics
  • Bacteriophages / isolation & purification*
  • Bacteriophages / ultrastructure
  • Base Sequence
  • Cluster Analysis
  • DNA / chemistry
  • DNA / genetics
  • DNA, Viral / chemistry
  • DNA, Viral / genetics
  • Dental Plaque / microbiology*
  • Genome, Viral
  • Humans
  • Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Neisseria / isolation & purification
  • Neisseria / virology*
  • Phylogeny
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Sequence Homology
  • Siphoviridae / classification
  • Siphoviridae / genetics
  • Siphoviridae / isolation & purification*
  • Siphoviridae / ultrastructure
  • Virion / ultrastructure

Substances

  • DNA, Viral
  • DNA