φX216, a P2-like bacteriophage with broad Burkholderia pseudomallei and B. mallei strain infectivity
- Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (United States). Dept. of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology
- Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Geochemistry
- US Army Medical Research Inst. of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, MD (United States)
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Background: Burkholderia pseudomallei and B. mallei are closely related Category B Select Agents of bioterrorism and the causative agents of the diseases melioidosis and glanders, respectively. Rapid phage-based diagnostic tools would greatly benefit early recognition and treatment of these diseases. There is extensive strain-to-strain variation in B. pseudomallei genome content due in part to the presence or absence of integrated prophages. Several phages have previously been isolated from B. pseudomallei lysogens, for example φK96243, φ1026b and φ52237. Results: We have isolated a P2-like bacteriophage, φX216, which infects 78% of all B. pseudomallei strains tested. φX216 also infects B. mallei, but not other Burkholderia species, including the closely related B. thailandensis and B. oklahomensis. The nature of the φX216 host receptor remains unclear but evidence indicates that in B. mallei φX216 uses lipopolysaccharide O-antigen but a different receptor in B. pseudomallei. The 37,637 bp genome of φX216 encodes 47 predicted open reading frames and shares 99.8% pairwise identity and an identical strain host range with bacteriophage φ52237. Closely related P2-like prophages appear to be widely distributed among B. pseudomallei strains but both φX216 and φ52237 readily infect prophage carrying strains. Conclusions: The broad strain infectivity and high specificity for B. pseudomallei and B. mallei indicate that φX216 will provide a good platform for the development of phage-based diagnostics for these bacteria.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science Division; Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC52-06NA25396; W81XWH-07-C0061
- OSTI ID:
- 1626478
- Journal Information:
- BMC Microbiology, Vol. 12, Issue 1; ISSN 1471-2180
- Publisher:
- BioMed CentralCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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