Characterization of three new Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteriophages

Abstract

Bacteriophages or phages are viruses that infect bacteria and are vastly abundant in nature. Since their discovery in the early 20th century, phages have been valuable tools in the development of molecular biology and biotechnology. Phages have also been considered as potential antimicrobial agents, and the interest in the use of phages as therapeutic agents has reemerged in recent years, mainly as an alternative for biological control of multidrug-resistant bacteria. In previous work by our research group [Amgarten, Martins et al. (2017) BMC Genomics 18: ARTN346], we carried out a genomic and morphological characterization of three new phages (ZC01, ZC03 and ZC08) isolated from the thermophilic composting of the Zoological Park of São Paulo using the Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14 as host. Thirty bacterial strains were tested but the three phages were highly efficient only in lysing P. aeruginosa PA14 and H6044 (a human blood culture isolate). The goal of this project is to broaden and deepen the characterization of phages ZC01, ZC03 and ZC08 in order to explore in more detail their potential as candidates for phage therapy. This additional characterization includes testing the infectivity of these phages against a broader range of clinical and environmental isolates of P. aeruginosa, evaluating their efficiency in degrading more mature PA14 biofilms (e 5 days) and verifying the stability of these phages at different temperatures and pHs. (AU)