title: What Can We Learn from a Metagenomic Analysis of a Georgian Bacteriophage Cocktail?
abstract: Phage therapy, a practice widespread in Eastern Europe, has untapped potential in the combat against antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections. However, technology transfer to Western medicine is proving challenging. Bioinformatics analysis could help to facilitate this endeavor. In the present study, the Intesti phage cocktail, a key commercial product of the Eliava Institute, Georgia, has been tested on a selection of bacterial strains, sequenced as a metagenomic sample, de novo assembled and analyzed by bioinformatics methods. Furthermore, eight bacterial host strains were infected with the cocktail and the resulting lysates sequenced and compared to the unamplified cocktail. The analysis identified 23 major phage clusters in different abundances in the cocktail, among those clusters related to the ICTV genera T4likevirus, T5likevirus, T7likevirus, Chilikevirus and Twortlikevirus, as well as a cluster that was quite distant to the database sequences and a novel Proteus phage cluster. Examination of the depth of coverage showed the clusters to have different abundances within the cocktail. The cocktail was found to be composed primarily of Myoviridae (35%) and Siphoviridae (32%), with Podoviridae being a minority (15%). No undesirable genes were found.
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. henrike@cbs.dtu.dk.
authors.forename: Henrike
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zschach
authors.affiliation: National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. kagjo@food.dtu.dk.
authors.forename: Katrine G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Joensen
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. b.lindhard@live.dk.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Lindhard
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. lund@cbs.dtu.dk.
authors.forename: Ole
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Lund
authors.affiliation: Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology, 3 Gotua Str., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia. mgoderdzishvili@gtu.ge.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Goderdzishvili
authors.affiliation: Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology, 3 Gotua Str., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia. irinachkonia@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chkonia
authors.affiliation: Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology, 3 Gotua Str., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia. gulikojgenti@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Guliko
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jgenti
authors.affiliation: Eliava Institute of Bacteriophages, Microbiology and Virology, 3 Gotua Str., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia. ninqvatadze@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Nino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kvatadze
authors.affiliation: Eliava Biopreparations LTD,3 Gotua Str., Tbilisi 0160, Georgia. z.i.alavidze@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Zemphira
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Alavidze
authors.affiliation: Lab 1, The Evergreen State College, Olympia,WA 98505, USA. KutterB@evergreen.edu.
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Kutter
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. henh@ssi.dk.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hasman
authors.affiliation: Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark, 2800 Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark. metteb@cbs.dtu.dk.
authors.forename: Mette V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Larsen
mesh_terms: D001435:Bacteriophages / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D001688:Biological Products / Q000592:standards*; D004755:Enterobacteriaceae / Q000821:virology*; D016679:Genome, Viral; D005846:Georgia (Republic); D054892:Metagenome; D056186:Metagenomics; D017900:Myoviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D017902:Podoviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D017906:Siphoviridae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D001688:Biological Products
keywords: Eliava Intestiphage; metagenomics; phage therapy; whole genome sequence analysis