Biological characteristics and whole-genome analysis of the Enterococcus faecalis phage PEf771

Abstract

Enterococcus faecalis is a common pathogen causing refractory periapical periodontitis and secondary intraradicular infections. In this study, E. faecalis YN771 isolated from a re-treated root canal at a stomatology department was used as the host bacterium and was co-cultured with wastewater from the same department and patient samples to isolate a phage that lyses E. faecalis. We studied the biological and genomic characteristics of this phage. Transmission electron microscopy showed that this phage’s head is icosahedral in structure, with a head diameter of around 98.4 nm, and a contractile tail of around 228.5 nm in length and a diameter of 17.3 nm. The phage was identified as a member of the Myoviridae family and named PEf771. It is sensitive to proteinase K but resistant to chloroform and Triton X-100. Its lytic cycle is 45 min, burst size is 78, optimal multiplicity of infection is 0.1, lysis spectrum is narrow, and host strain specificity is strong. Its optimal growth temperature is 37 °C, most suitable pH is 6.0, and is sensitive to ultraviolet radiation. Whole-genome sequencing of PEf771 indicated it has a genome size of 151 052 bp, with a GC content of 36.97%, and encodes 197 proteins plus 26 tRNAs. PEf771 is most closely related to E. faecalis phage EFDG1. Phage PEf771 has strong host specificity and lytic ability, so it is important to further characterize this phage and its interaction with E. faecalis.