title: Characterization of the morphology and genome of an Escherichia coli podovirus.
abstract: Escherichia coli is an important opportunistic pathogen. It can cause sepsis and severe infection. The application of lytic bacteriophages to treat infectious diseases is an alternative to antibiotics. A lytic Escherichia coli phage, designated IME-EC2, was isolated from hospital sewage. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that IME-EC2 to be a member of the family Podoviridae. It had a 60-nm head and a 15-nm tail. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of this phage, which consists of 41,510 bp with an overall G+C content of 59.2 %. A total of 60 coding sequences (CDS) were identified, and the phage genome does not contain any tRNA genes. Forty percent of the unknown CDSs are unique to IME-EC2. This phage does not show significant similarity to other phages at the DNA level, which suggests that IME-EC2 could be a novel phage. One of the unique features identified in the IME-EC2 genome was a gene coding for a putative colanic-acid-degrading protein, which could allow the phage to degrade bacterial capsule and biofilms. Another unique feature is that IME-EC2 does not contain a terminase small subunit, which suggests that this phage may have a unique packaging mechanism. The present work provides novel information on phages and shows that this lytic phage or its products could be exploited to destroy bacterial biofilms and pathogenic E. coli.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing, 100071, China.
authors.forename: Yuhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hua
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: An
authors.forename: Guangqian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.forename: Shasha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaomeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Huahao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Zhiyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Zhiqiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mi
authors.forename: Jiankui
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Jingyun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Feixiong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yigang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tong
mesh_terms: D001482:Base Composition; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D003090:Coliphages / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000821:virology*; D005814:Genes, Viral; D016679:Genome, Viral; D006761:Hospitals; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017902:Podoviridae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D012722:Sewage / Q000821:virology; D014771:Virion / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D004279:DNA, Viral; D012722:Sewage