Journal of Bacteriology & Parasitology

Bacterial stress-induced increase of phage production mediated by a delayed lysis

46^th World Congress on Microbiology

September 18-19, 2017 Dublin, Ireland

Yunyeol Jo, Jaeyeon Jang and Heejoon Myung

Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Bacteriol Parasitol

Abstract:

When phages infect bacteria cultured in the presence of sub-lethal doses of antibiotics, sizes of phage plaques significantly increase. This phenomenon is known as phage-antibiotic synergy (PAS). PAS was observed in both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. We confirmed that cells stressed with β-lactam and quinolone antibiotics filamented or swelled extensively and increased phage productions were observed from them. Although cell surfaces enlarged as they filamented, phage adsorption efficiency did not change in the presence of antibiotics. A prolonged assembly period as well as increased phage DNA replication, transcription, and translation due to enlarged production facility were observed in these cells. Increase in cell surface area exceeded that of phage holin production in filamented host cells, leading to relatively limited availability of intracellular holins to aggregate and to form a hole in the host membrane. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) stress also led to increased production of phages, while heat stress showed only limited increase in phage production.

Biography :

Yunyeol Jo is a graduate student of Virology at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea. Currently, he is working on the removal of biofilm using engineered phage displaying colanic acid degrading enzyme (CAE). He also participated in the research about increased phage production using antibiotics, ROS, and heat.