Isolation and Characterization of Phages Infecting Bacillus subtilis.
Bacteriophages have been suggested as an alternative approach to reduce the amount of pathogens in various applications. Bacteriophages of various specificity and virulence were isolated as a means of controlling food-borne pathogens. We studied the interaction of bacteriophages with Bacillus species, which are very often persistent in industrial applications such as food production due to their antibiotic resistance and spore formation. A comparative study using electron microscopy, PFGE, and SDS-PAGE as well as determination of host range, pH and temperature resistance, adsorption rate, latent time, and phage burst size was performed on three phages of the Myoviridae family and one phage of the Siphoviridae family which infected Bacillus subtilis strains. The phages are morphologically different and characterized by icosahedral heads and contractile (SIOΦ, SUBω, and SPOσ phages) or noncontractile (ARπ phage) tails. The genomes of SIOΦ and SUBω are composed of 154 kb. The capsid of SIOΦ is composed of four proteins. Bacteriophages SPOσ and ARπ have genome sizes of 25 kbp and 40 kbp, respectively. Both phages as well as SUBω phage have 14 proteins in their capsids. Phages SIOΦ and SPOσ are resistant to high temperatures and to the acid (4.0) and alkaline (9.0 and 10.0) pH.
Department of Biotransformation, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Fryderyka Joliot-Curie 14a, 50-383 Wroclaw, Poland.
Anna
A
Krasowska
Department of Biotransformation, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Fryderyka Joliot-Curie 14a, 50-383 Wroclaw, Poland.
Anna
A
Biegalska
Department of Pathogen Biology and Immunology, Institute of Genetics and Microbiology, University of Wroclaw, Przybyszewskiego 63-77, 51-148 Wroclaw, Poland.
Daria
D
Augustyniak
Department of Molecular Biology, University of Gdańsk, Kładki 24, 80-822 Gdańsk, Poland ; Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Kasprzaka 44/52, 01-224 Warsaw, Poland ; Phage Consultants, Tenisowa 10/5, 80-180 Gdańsk, Poland.
Marcin
M
Łoś
Laboratory of Electron Microscopy, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdańsk, Kładki 24, 80-822 Gdańsk, Poland.
Malwina
M
Richert
Department of Biotransformation, Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Fryderyka Joliot-Curie 14a, 50-383 Wroclaw, Poland.
Marcin
M
Łukaszewicz
D001412:Bacillus subtilis / Q000821:virology*; D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013045:Species Specificity