Zayed Complex for Herbal Research and Traditional Medicine, Research and Innovation Center, Department of Health, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 5674, United Arab Emirates.
Department of Biology, College of Science, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain P.O. Box 15551, United Arab Emirates.
Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Nov 27;23(23):14846. doi: 10.3390/ijms232314846.
Verotoxin-producing O157:H7 is responsible for the majority of foodborne outbreaks worldwide and may lead to death. Bacteriophages are natural killers of bacteria. All previously reported O157:H7 phages were isolated from ruminants or swine. Here, we report for the first time a phage isolated from bird feces in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), designated as UAE_MI-01, indicating birds as a good source of phages. Thus, phages could be a tool for predicting the presence of the host bacteria in an animal or the environment. UAE_MI-01 was found to be a lytic phage that was stable at wide ranges of pH, temperature, and chemical disinfectants, and with a burst size of almost 100 plaque-forming units per host cell after a latent period of 20 min and an adsorption rate constant (K) of 1.25 × 10 mL min. The phage genome was found to be 44,281 bp long with an average GC content of 54.7%. The presence of the phage indicates the presence of the host cell O157:H7 in wild birds. Therefore, other birds, mainly poultry, could be also investigated for the presence of this pathogenic bacterium. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of an O157:H7 bacteriophage isolated from a bird.
产志贺毒素的 O157：H7 是世界范围内大多数食源性疾病爆发的罪魁祸首，可能导致死亡。噬菌体是细菌的天然杀手。之前所有报道的 O157：H7 噬菌体都是从反刍动物或猪中分离出来的。在这里，我们首次报告了一种从阿拉伯联合酋长国（阿联酋）鸟类粪便中分离出来的噬菌体，命名为 UAE_MI-01，表明鸟类是噬菌体的良好来源。因此，噬菌体可以作为一种工具，用于预测宿主细菌在动物或环境中的存在。UAE_MI-01 被发现是一种裂解噬菌体，在广泛的 pH 值、温度和化学消毒剂范围内稳定，潜伏期为 20 分钟后，每个宿主细胞的爆发大小约为 100 个噬菌斑形成单位，吸附速率常数（K）为 1.25×10 mL min。噬菌体基因组长 44281 bp，平均 GC 含量为 54.7%。噬菌体的存在表明宿主细胞 O157：H7 存在于野生鸟类中。因此，其他鸟类，主要是家禽，也可以被调查是否存在这种致病菌。据我们所知，这是首次从鸟类中分离出 O157：H7 噬菌体的报道。
