The isolation and characterization of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia T4-like bacteriophage DLP6

Danielle L Peters; Paul Stothard; Jonathan J Dennis

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0173341

The isolation and characterization of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia T4-like bacteriophage DLP6

PLoS One. 2017 Mar 14;12(3):e0173341. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0173341. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Danielle L Peters¹, Paul Stothard², Jonathan J Dennis¹

Affiliations

¹ 6-065 Centennial Centre for Interdisciplinary Science, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
² Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Abstract

Increasing isolation of the extremely antibiotic resistant bacterium Stenotrophomonas maltophilia has caused alarm worldwide due to the limited treatment options available. A potential treatment option for fighting this bacterium is 'phage therapy', the clinical application of bacteriophages to selectively kill bacteria. Bacteriophage DLP6 (vB_SmoM-DLP6) was isolated from a soil sample using clinical isolate S. maltophilia strain D1571 as host. Host range analysis of phage DLP6 against 27 clinical S. maltophilia isolates shows successful infection and lysis in 13 of the 27 isolates tested. Transmission electron microscopy of DLP6 indicates that it is a member of the Myoviridae family. Complete genome sequencing and analysis of DLP6 reveals its richly recombined evolutionary history, featuring a core of both T4-like and cyanophage genes, which suggests that it is a member of the T4-superfamily. Unlike other T4-superfamily phages however, DLP6 features a transposase and ends with 229 bp direct terminal repeats. The isolation of this bacteriophage is an exciting discovery due to the divergent nature of DLP6 in relation to the T4-superfamily of phages.

MeSH terms

Bacteriophage T4 / genetics
Bacteriophage T4 / isolation & purification*
Bacteriophage T4 / ultrastructure
Microscopy, Electron, Transmission
Phylogeny
Promoter Regions, Genetic
Stenotrophomonas maltophilia / virology*
Terminator Regions, Genetic

Grants and funding

This study was supported by Operating grant #238414 to JJD from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and The authors also acknowledge funding support for DLP by a NSERC PGS-D graduate scholarship. http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/index_eng.asp. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.