Lytic Myophage Abp53 Encodes Several Proteins Similar to Those Encoded by Host Acinetobacter baumannii and Phage phiKO2

Abstract

ABSTRACTAcinetobacter baumanniiis an important Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen causing nosocomial infections. The emergence of multiple-drug-resistantA. baumanniiisolates has increased in recent years. Directed toward phage therapy, a lytic phage ofA. baumannii, designated Abp53, was isolated from a sputum sample in this study. Abp53 has an isometric head and a contractile tail with tail fibers (belonging toMyoviridae), a latent period of about 10 min, and a burst size of approximately 150 PFU per infected cell. Abp53 could completely lyse 27% of theA. baumanniiisolates tested, which were all multiple drug resistant, but not other bacteria. Mg2+enhanced the adsorption and productivity of, and host lysis by, Abp53. Twenty Abp53 virion proteins were visualized in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, with a 47-kDa protein being the predicted major capsid protein. Abp53 has a double-stranded DNA genome of 95 kb. Sequence analyses of a 10-kb region revealed 8 open reading frames. Five of the encoded proteins, including 3 tail components and 2 hypothetical proteins, were similar to proteins encoded byA. baumanniistrain ACICU. ORF1176 (one of the tail components, 1,176 amino acids [aa]), which is also similar to tail protein gp21 ofKlebsiellaphage phiKO2, contained repeated domains similar to those within the ACICU_02717 protein ofA. baumanniiACICU and gp21. These findings suggest a common ancestry and horizontal gene transfer during evolution. As phages can expand the host range by domain duplication in tail fiber proteins, repeated domains in ORF1176 might have a similar significance in Abp53.