Author(s):
da Silva, Jéssica Duarte ; Melo, Luís Daniel Rodrigues ; Santos, Sílvio Roberto Branco ; Kropinski, Andrew M. ; Xisto, Mariana Fonseca ; Dias, Roberto Sousa ; da Silva Paes, Isabela ; Vieira, Marcella Silva ; Soares, José Júnior Ferreira ; Porcellato, Davide ; da Silva Duarte, Vinícius ; de Paula, Sérgio Oliveira
Date: 2023
Persistent ID: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/87228
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
Subject(s): Bovine mastitis; Endolysin; Jumbo phages; Staphylococcus aureus; VAPGH
Description
Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most relevant mastitis pathogens in dairy cattle, and the acquisition of antimicrobial resistance genes presents a significant health issue in both veterinary and human fields. Among the different strategies to tackle S. aureus infection in livestock, bacteriophages have been thoroughly investigated in the last decades; however, few specimens of the so-called jumbo phages capable of infecting S. aureus have been described. Herein, we report the biological, genomic, and structural proteomic features of the jumbo phage vB_SauM-UFV_DC4 (DC4). DC4 exhibited a remarkable killing activity against S. aureus isolated from the veterinary environment and stability at alkaline conditions (pH 4 to 12). The complete genome of DC4 is 263,185 bp (GC content: 25%), encodes 263 predicted CDSs (80% without an assigned function), 1 tRNA (Phe-tRNA), multisubunit RNA polymerase, and an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. Moreover, comparative analysis revealed that DC4 can be considered a new viral species belonging to a new genus DC4 and showed a similar set of lytic proteins and depolymerase activity with closely related jumbo phages. The characterization of a new S. aureus jumbo phage increases our understanding of the diversity of this group and provides insights into the biotechnological potential of these viruses.
