• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.10
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• pp.1518-1522
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• 2006

In the present study, it was observed how the phage-host system that is naturally reproduced in activated sludge is affected by the host inoculation. The system of Microlunatus phosphovorus and its phages was selected as the phage-host system native to an activated sludge system operated for 19 days under sequencing anaerobic-aerobic conditions with glutamate as the main carbon source. The phage-host system related to M. phosphovorus was monitored by plaque assay for the phages and by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) for the bacterial host. In addition, the whole phage structure was also monitored by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). During the first 9 days, the phage-host system was more or less steady at approx. 9% (FISH/ DAPI) for M. phosphovorus and approx. 10,000 PFU/ml for its lytic phages. Microlunatus phosphovorus JCM9379 was inoculated into the activated sludge on day 10. Right after the inoculation, M. phosphovorus was approx. 24% (FISH/DAPI) whereas its lytic phages dropped down to approx. 500 PFU/ ml. After the host inoculation (within 9 days), however, the phage-host system eventually reverted to its original level in each population. On the other hand, the whole phage structure was not significantly changed by M. phosphovorus inoculation but stable throughout the process operation. Only the minor change that four phage groups gradually became abundant after the host inoculation was observed.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.17 no.10
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• pp.1704-1707
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• 2007

Monitoring of the phage-host system of Microlunatus phosphovorus indigenous in activated sludge was attempted. A laboratory-scale activated sludge process was operated for 5 weeks with synthetic wastewater. The phage-host system population in the process was monitored by plaque assay and FISH methods at every 3 days. During the process operation, the phage-host system populations were more or less steady, except for 1 week in the middle of the operation. In that period, initially M. phosphovorus decreased significantly and its lytic bacteriophages increased, and then M. phosphovorus increased back to its original level while its lytic bacteriophages decreased. This observation suggests that lytic bacteriophages should be considered as one of the biological factors affecting the bacterial population dynamics in activated sludge processes.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.730-736
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• 2004

This study aims at characterizing the bacteriophages isolated from activated sludge performing enhanced biological phosphorous removal (EBPR) to understand the interactions between the phage-host system and bacterial community. Sixteen bacterial isolates (E1-E16) were isolated as host bacterial strains from EBPR activated sludge for phage isolation. Forty bacteriophages based on their plaque sizes (2 plaques on E4, 4 on E8, 11 on E10, 5 on E14, 18 on E16) were obtained from filtered supernatant of the EBPR activated sludge. Each bacteriophage did not make any plaque on bacterial strains tested in this study except on its own host bacterial strain, respectively, indicating that the bacteriophages are with narrow host specificity. However, fourteen of the forty bacteriophages obtained in this study lost their virulent ability even on their own host bacteria. All of the lytic phages showed similar one-step growth patterns and had long latent period (about 9 hours) to reproduce their phage particles in their host bacterial cells. On the other hand, their probable burst sizes (6 to 48 per host cell) were large enough to actively lyse their host bacterial cells. Therefore, it could be implied that bacteriophages are also important members of the microbial community in EBPR activated sludge, and lytic phages directly decrease the population size of their host bacterial groups in EBPR activated sludge by lysis.

• Journal of Food Hygiene and Safety
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.602-606
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• 2020

This study was designed to investigate the dynamic behaviors of phages against Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium ATCC 19585 (STWT), S. Typhimurium KCCM 40253 (STKCCM), ciprofloxacin-induced S. Typhimurium ATCC 19585 strains (STCIP), and S. Typhimurium CCARM 8009 (STCCARM). Phages, including PBST-10, PBST-13, PBST-32, PBST-35, P-22, and P-22 B1 had narrow host ranges. The adsorption rates of all phages ranged from 47 to 85%, 58 to 95%, and 61 to 93%, respectively, against STWT, STKCCM, and STCIP, while the lowest adsorption rates ranged from 14 to 36% against STCCARM. The phage burst sizes were from 43 to 350, 37 to 530, 66 to 500, and 24 to 500 plaque-forming units (PFUs) per infected STWT, STKCCM, STCIP, and STCCARM, respectively. The STCIP strain was effectively inhibited by all phages at the early of incubation period. These results provide useful information for better understanding the phage behaviors against antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-sensitive pathogens.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1613-1620
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• 2012

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is a devastating disease of many economically important crops. Since there is no promising control strategy for bacterial wilt, phage therapy could be adopted using virulent phages. We used phage PE204 as a model lytic bacteriophage to investigate its biocontrol potential for bacterial wilt on tomato plants. The phage PE204 has a short-tailed icosahedral structure and double-stranded DNA genome similar to that of the members of Podoviridae. PE204 is stable under a wide range of temperature and pH, and is also stable in the presence of the surfactant Silwet L-77. An artificial soil microcosm (ASM) to study phage stability in soil was adopted to investigate phage viability under a controlled system. Whereas phage showed less stability under elevated temperature in the ASM, the presence of host bacteria helped to maintain a stable phage population. Simultaneous treatment of phage PE204 at $10^8$ PFU/ml with R. solanacearum on tomato rhizosphere completely inhibited bacterial wilt occurrence, and amendment of Silwet L-77 at 0.1% to the phage suspension did not impair the disease control activity of PE204. The biocontrol activities of phage PE204 application onto tomato rhizosphere before or after R. solanacearum inoculation were also investigated. Whereas pretreatment with the phage was not effective in the control of bacterial wilt, post-treatment of PE204 delayed bacterial wilt development. Our results suggested that appropriate application of lytic phages to the plant root system with a surfactant such as Silwet L-77 could be used to control the bacterial wilt of crops.

• Food Science of Animal Resources
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• v.40 no.5
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• pp.746-757
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• 2020

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is the major pathogenic E. coli that causes diarrhea and edema in post-weaning piglets. In this study, we describe the morphology and characteristics of ØCJ19, a bacteriophage that infects ETEC, and performed genetic analysis. Phage ØCJ19 belongs to the family Myoviridae. One-step growth curve showed a latent phase of 5 min and burst size of approximately 20 phage particles/infected cell. Phage infectivity was stable for 2 h between 4℃ and 55℃, and the phage was stable between pH 3 and 11. Genetic analysis revealed that phage ØCJ19 has a total of 49,567 bases and 79 open reading frames (ORFs). The full genomic sequence of phage ØCJ19 showed the most similarity to an Escherichia phage, vB_EcoS_ESCO41. There were no genes encoding lysogeny, toxins, virulence factors, or antibiotic resistance in this phage, suggesting that this phage can be used safely as a biological agent to control ETEC. Comparative genomic analysis in terms of the tail fiber proteins could provide genetic insight into host recognition and the relationship with other coliphages. These results showed the possibility to improve food safety by applying phage ØCJ19 to foods of animal origin contaminated with ETEC and suggests that it could be the basis for establishing a safety management system in the animal husbandry.

• BMB Reports
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.448-454
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• 1996

Bacteriophage ${\phi}FC1$ is a temperate phage which was identified as a prophage in the Enterococcus faecalis KBL703 chromosome. Phage ${\phi}FC1$ integrates into the host chromosome by site-specific recombination. The phage attachment site P (attP) was localized within the 0.65-kb XhoI-HindIII fragment and the nucleotide sequence of the region was determined. An open reading frame (mj1) which adjoined the phage attachment site encoded a deduced protein related to the site-specific recombinase family. The organization of this region was comparable to other site-specific recombination systems. The molecular weight of the expressed MJ1 in E. coli was in good agreement with the predicted 53,537 Da of the mj1 gene product. Elucidation of the phage-specific integration process in this study would provide useful genetic tools such as a chromosomal integration system.

• Research in Plant Disease
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.236-242
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• 2016

Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacearum is one of the most devastating diseases in major Solanaceae crops. The pathogen is easily disseminated and survives for many years in plant farming system. Although chemicals are applied to control the disease, they are of limited efficacy and cause several problems. Therefore, the use of phage therapy has been suggested to control the disease as a biological agent. In this study, we discovered bacteriophages lysing diverse Ralstonia isolates from plant and soil samples obtained from the potato cultivated field in Jeju. Three times repeated pickings of plaques resulted in obtaining 173 single phages showing diverse spectrum of host-specificity. With the results, 12 core phages were selected and dendrogram was generated. Genetic diversity of the selected phages was also confirmed by AFLP (Amplified Fragment of Length Polymorphism) fingerprinting. The stability of the phages was investigated in various temperatures and various conditions of pH in vitro. The phages were stable at $16^{\circ}C-44^{\circ}C$ and pH 6-10. Morphological characterization of the phages revealed they were all classified into the Podoviridae, but had diverse head sizes. The results of this research will contribute to control the disease and further researches regarding genetic and molecular aspects will facilitate understanding phage and bacteria interaction.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.704-711
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• 1996

An optimal process design of a foreign protein production system was carried out using a bioprocess flowsheeting software, BioPro Designer, with a capability of economic analysis. The flowsheeting program was applied to a production system of the tailspike protein of Salmonella phage P22, and helped save time and efforts in selecting an optimal process. A wild type tailspike and two types of mutant tailspikes, tsf G244\longrightarrow,R and Su A334\longrightarrowV, were considered in this study to show that the folding characteristics of foreign protein produced inside host influenced the selection of the best production system. An optimal production system for mature tailspike was chosen under the criterion of capital investment per unit mass of mature protein recovered.

• The Korean Journal of Zoology
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.303-309
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• 1990

In order to have a handle on the availability of eukarvotic peptide hormone precursors, a cDNA encoding angler fish prepro-SRIF I was manipulated so that it can be produced in large quantity from heterologous E. coli cells. Using T7 overexpression system, fusion constructs between the T7 phage coat protein Sl0 and the prepro-SRIF were made and modified as desired. From the host E. coli strain, BL21 DE3, harboring these plasmid constructs, three different SRIF related polypeptides were expressed in large amount and characterized. The results confirm the exact construction and authenticity of the overexpressed proteins from E. coli cells. The importance of this heterologous overexpression in hard to get peptide hormone precursors as well as the suitability of the target peptide hormone SRIF for this approach are discussed.