Journal
FRONTIERS IN MICROBIOLOGY
Volume 13, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
FRONTIERS MEDIA SA
DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1010330
Keywords
bacteriophage; receptor binding proteins; antimicrobial resistance; phage therapy and biotechnology; phage T4; phage lambda; Citrobacter rodentium
Categories
Funding
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, UKRI)
- [BB/W000105/1]
- [BB/T006668/1]
- [PHJZ/744]
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Widespread multidrug antimicrobial resistance has led to a renewed interest in phage therapy. However, the narrow host range and unintended effects of phages on host physiology and pathogen evolution limit their deployment. This study identifies a novel RBP family related to known RBPs of T4 and lambda, with potential for use in synthetic strategies to expand therapeutic phage host ranges.
Widespread multidrug antimicrobial resistance in emerging pathogens has led to a renewed interest in phage therapy as an alternative or supplement to traditional small molecule drugs. The primary limiting factors of phage therapy deployment rest in the narrow host range specificity of phage as well as a poor understanding of many phages' unintended downstream effects on host physiology and microbiota as well as on adverse pathogen evolution. Consequently, this has made assembling well-defined and safe phage-cocktails of solely naturally occurring phages labor- and time-intensive. To increase the speed, efficacy, and safety of therapeutic deployment, there is exceptional interest in modulating the host ranges of well-characterized lytic phages (e.g., T4 and T7) by using synthetic strategies to the swap phage tail components, the receptor binding proteins (RBPs) key for host specificity. Here we identify the RBP of the Citrobacter rodentium temperate phage phi NP as ORF6. Through bioinformatic and phylogenetic assays, we demonstrate this RBP to be closely related to the known RBPs of T4 and lambda. Further investigation reveals a novel, greater than 200 members RBP family with phages targeting several notable human pathogens, including Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella spp., and Shigella spp. With well characterized lytic members, this RBP family represents an ideal candidate for use in synthetic strategies for expanding therapeutic phage host ranges.
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