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Updated: Oct 19, 2025

Bacteriophage Effectiveness for Biocontrol of Foodborne Pathogens Evaluated via High-Throughput Settings
Published on: August 19, 2021
vB-Ea-5: a lytic bacteriophage against multi-drug-resistant Enterobacter aerogenes
Fatemeh Habibinava1, Mohammad Reza Zolfaghari1, Mohsen Zargar1
1Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran.
Background And Objectives:
Multi-drug-resistant Enterobacter aerogenes is associated with various infectious diseases that cannot be easily treated by antibiotics. However, bacteriophages have potential therapeutic applications in the control of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. In this study, we aimed to isolate and characterize of a lytic bacteriophage that can lyse specifically the multi-drug-resistant (MDR) E. aerogenes.
Materials And Methods:
Lytic bacteriophage was isolated from Qaem hospital wastewater and characterized morphologically and genetically. Next-generation sequencing was used to complete genome analysis of the isolated bacteriophage.
Results:
Based on the transmission electron microscopy feature, the isolated bacteriophage (vB-Ea-5) belongs to the family Myoviridae. vB-Ea-5 had a latent period of 25 minutes, a burst size of 13 PFU/ml, and a burst time of 40 min. Genome sequencing revealed that vB-Ea-5 has a 135324 bp genome with 41.41% GC content. The vB-Ea-5 genome codes 212 ORFs 90 of which were categorized into several functional classes such as DNA replication and modification, transcriptional regulation, packaging, structural proteins, and a host lysis protein (Holin). No antibiotic resistance and toxin genes were detected in the genome. SDS-PAGE of vB-Ea-5 proteins exhibited three major and four minor bands with a molecular weight ranging from 18 to 50 kD.
Conclusion:
Our study suggests vB-Ea-5 as a potential candidate for phage therapy against MDR E. aerogenes infections.
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