Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.
mSphere. 2023 Jun 22;8(3):e0052422. doi: 10.1128/msphere.00524-22. Epub 2023 Apr 5.
The effort to discover novel phages infecting Staphylococcus epidermidis contributes to both the development of phage therapy and the expansion of genome-based phage phylogeny. Here, we report the genome of an S. epidermidis-infecting phage, Lacachita, and compare its genome with those of five other phages with high sequence identity. These phages represent a novel siphovirus genus, which was recently reported in the literature. The published member of this group was favorably evaluated as a phage therapeutic agent, but Lacachita is capable of transducing antibiotic resistance and conferring phage resistance to transduced cells. Members of this genus may be maintained within their host as extrachromosomal plasmid prophages, through stable lysogeny or pseudolysogeny. Therefore, we conclude that Lacachita may be temperate and members of this novel genus are not suitable for phage therapy. This project describes the discovery of a culturable bacteriophage infecting Staphylococcus epidermidis that is a member of a rapidly growing novel siphovirus genus. A member of this genus was recently characterized and proposed for phage therapy, as there are few phages currently available to treat S. epidermidis infections. Our data contradict this, as we show Lacachita is capable of moving DNA from one bacterium to another, and it may be capable of maintaining itself in a plasmid-like state in infected cells. These phages' putative plasmid-like extrachromosomal state appears to be due to a simplified maintenance mechanism found in true plasmids of Staphylococcus and related hosts. We suggest Lacachita and other identified members of this novel genus are not suitable for phage therapy.
努力发现感染表皮葡萄球菌的新型噬菌体，有助于噬菌体疗法的发展和基于基因组的噬菌体系统发育的扩展。在这里，我们报告了一株感染表皮葡萄球菌的噬菌体 Lacachita 的基因组，并将其与其他五个具有高序列同一性的噬菌体的基因组进行了比较。这些噬菌体代表了一个新的丝状噬菌体属，最近在文献中有所报道。该组的已发表成员被评价为噬菌体治疗剂，但 Lacachita 能够转导抗生素耐药性并赋予转导细胞噬菌体耐药性。该属的成员可能作为染色体外质粒前噬菌体在其宿主中维持，通过稳定溶原或拟溶原。因此，我们得出结论，Lacachita 可能是温和的，并且该新属的成员不适合噬菌体治疗。本项目描述了一种可培养的噬菌体的发现，该噬菌体感染表皮葡萄球菌，是一个快速增长的新型丝状噬菌体属的成员。该属的一个成员最近被表征并被提议用于噬菌体治疗，因为目前几乎没有噬菌体可用于治疗表皮葡萄球菌感染。我们的数据与这一观点相矛盾，因为我们表明 Lacachita 能够将 DNA 从一个细菌转移到另一个细菌，并且它可能能够以质粒样状态在感染的细胞中维持自身。这些噬菌体的假定质粒样染色体外状态似乎是由于在葡萄球菌和相关宿主的真正质粒中发现的简化维持机制所致。我们建议 Lacachita 和其他鉴定的该新型属成员不适合噬菌体治疗。
