Characterisation and genome sequence of the lytic Acinetobacter baumannii bacteriophage vB_AbaS_Loki

PLoS One. 2017 Feb 16;12(2):e0172303. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172303. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii has emerged as an important nosocomial pathogen in healthcare and community settings. While over 100 of Acinetobacter phages have been described in the literature, relatively few have been sequenced. This work describes the characterisation and genome annotation of a new lytic Acinetobacter siphovirus, vB_AbaS_Loki, isolated from activated sewage sludge. Sequencing revealed that Loki encapsulates a 41,308 bp genome, encoding 51 predicted open reading frames. Loki is most closely related to Acinetobacter phage IME_AB3 and more distantly related to Burkholderia phage KL1, Paracoccus phage vB_PmaS_IMEP1 and Pseudomonas phages vB_Pae_Kakheti25, vB_PaeS_SCH_Ab26 and PA73. Loki is characterised by a narrow host range, among the 40 Acinetobacter isolates tested, productive infection was only observed for the propagating host, A. baumannii ATCC 17978. Plaque formation was found to be dependent upon the presence of Ca2+ ions and adsorption to host cells was abolished upon incubation with a mutant of ATCC 17978 encoding a premature stop codon in lpxA. The complete genome sequence of vB_AbaS_Loki was deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) under the accession number LN890663.

MeSH terms

  • Acinetobacter Infections / microbiology*
  • Acinetobacter baumannii / isolation & purification
  • Acinetobacter baumannii / virology*
  • Bacteriophages / genetics*
  • Bacteriophages / isolation & purification
  • Bacteriophages / pathogenicity*
  • DNA, Viral / genetics*
  • Genome, Viral*
  • Humans
  • Phylogeny
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Viral Plaque Assay
  • Viral Proteins / genetics*
  • Virus Attachment

Substances

  • DNA, Viral
  • Viral Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a QR2015 award from the University of the West of England, Bristol to D.T. R.L. is supported by a the Geconcerteerde Onderzoeks Actie grant ‘Phage Biosystems’ from KU Leuven. R.L. & Y.B. are members of the FWO research community ‘Phagebiotics”. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.