Phenotypic and Genomic Comparison of Klebsiella pneumoniae Lytic Phages: vB_KpnM-VAC66 and vB_KpnM-VAC13

Phenotypic and Genomic Comparison of Klebsiella pneumoniae Lytic Phages: vB_KpnM-VAC66 and vB_KpnM-VAC13

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Klebsiella pneumoniae is a human pathogen that worsens the prognosis of many immunocompromised patients.Here, we annotated and compared the genomes of two lytic phages that here infect clinical strains of K.pneumoniae (vB_KpnM-VAC13 and vB_KpnM-VAC66) and phenotypically characterized vB_KpnM-VAC66 (time of adsorption of 12 min, burst size of 31.

49 ± 0.61 PFU/infected cell, and a host range of 20.8% of the tested strains).

Transmission electronic microscopy showed that vB_KpnM-VAC66 belongs to the Myoviridae family.The genomic analysis of the phage vB_KpnM-VAC66 revealed that its genome encoded 289 proteins.When compared to the genome of vB_KpnM-VAC13, they showed a nucleotide similarity of 97.

56%, with a 93% of query cover, and the phylogenetic study performed with other Tevenvirinae phages showed a close common ancestor.However, there were 21 coding sequences which differed.Interestingly, the main differences were that vB_KpnM-VAC66 encoded 10 more homing endonucleases than vB_KpnM-VAC13, and that the nucleotidic and amino-acid sequences of the L-shaped tail fiber protein were highly dissimilar, leading to different three-dimensional protein predictions.

Both phages differed significantly in their host range.These viruses may be useful in hacklinkci.com the development of alternative therapies to antibiotics or as a co-therapy increasing its antimicrobial potential, especially when addressing multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens.