Characterization of lactococcal bacteriophages isolated from Slovenian dairies

Abstract

Summary This is the first study on lactic acid bacteria bacteriophages isolated from dairy plants in Slovenia. Over a period of 2 years, thirteen lactococcal phages were isolated from the whey samples taken in three dairy plants. Phages were characterized by morphological properties, host range, restriction patterns, genome size and similarity of phage protein genes. All phages belonged to the Siphoviridae family. Five phages had prolate heads (52–61 × 40–52 nm) and 85–120 nm long non‐contractile tails (morphotype B2). Eight phages had small isometric heads (46–63 nm in diameter) and long non‐contractile tails (morphotype B1). The phages with the prolate heads showed a broader host range than the small isometric‐headed phages. The genome sizes of prolate phages were estimated between 15.9 and 16.3 kb while the genome sizes of small isometric‐headed phages were between 20.0 and 39.9 kb. Based on DNA restriction patterns, genome sizes and multiplex PCR analysis prolate phages were classified into the c2 group and were similar to the phage type c6A while all of the phages with small isometric heads were found to be related to the phage species 936.

Metagenomic Analysis of Dairy Bacteriophages: Extraction Method and Pilot Study on Whey Samples Derived from Using Undefined and Defined Mesophilic Starter Cultures

“…The dominance of 936 phages in the present metavirome study is consistent with most previous lactococcal phage isolation studies (6,18,36,(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53). Detection of mostly SCH and phage 7 and occasionally 645, ASCC406, 1727, and ⌽L.6 RBP variants may suggest the presence of a limited diversity of these phages in the dairies.…”

Bacteriophages in milk fermentations: Diversity fluctuations of normal and failed fermentations

“…To our knowledge there are no recent reports on c2-like phages being found in the production of Dutch-type cheese. However, phages of the c2 group have been shown to be abundant in dairy environments, most recently by Miklic and Rogelj (2003), Raiski and Belyasova (2009) and Szczepanska et al (2007). We confirmed the presence of phage belonging to the c2 group in a Spanish Manchego cheese, and an isolated c2-like phage was subsequently used as positive control in species determination analyses in this study.…”

“…PCR methods have been developed for easy detection and taxonomic determination of dairy phages (Dupont, Vogensen, & Josephsen, 2005;del Rio et al, 2007), and several studies have been published on the prevalence of lactococcal phages in milk and dairy environments from countries around the world (Bissonnette, Labrie, Deveau, Lamoureux, & Moineau, 2000;Josephsen et al, 1994;Madera et al, 2004;Miklic & Rogelj, 2003;Moineau et al, 1992Moineau et al, , 1996Neve, Berger, & Heller, 1995;Neve, Kemper, Geis, & Heller, 1994;Raiski & Belyasova, 2009;Szczepanska, Hejnowicz, Kolakowski, & Bardowski, 2007).…”

Understanding Bacteriophage Specificity in Natural Microbial Communities

“…The data gathered so far, however, do not clearly support this intuition. First, many phages seem to be specific to a single bacterial species, and are often specific to only a few strains within that species [21,22,23] (Table 1). Second, there is building evidence that phages are “locally adapted” to their bacterial hosts [3,24], indicating a degree of specialization to common bacterial strains or species in a given population.…”