inPhocus: "State of Phage" Survey Highlights Widespread Diverse Phage Isolation and Research in 40+ Countries.

The phage field is clearly growing around the world, but no one had compiled a bird's eye view of the phages being collected and the phage research and development work being done. To fill this gap, and help establish a baseline for the current state of phage research so we can track and cultivate its growth and evolution over time, we created the State of Phage 2020 Survey. We aimed to get a snapshot of the strains and phages being collected around the world, and to capture activities and opinions of phage laboratories, including go-to methods, definitions of what phage characterization looks like, level of characterization of phages, preferred phage sharing practices, and more.

Data to Power Precision Phage Therapy: A Look at the Phage Directory-Phage Australia Partnership.

Phage Directory has recently partnered with Phage Australia to help optimize Australia's data-centric standardized approach to personalized phage therapy. Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the genesis of Phage Australia, how the Phage Directory-Phage Australia partnership started, and what it is working toward.

Reduced Infection Efficiency of Phage NCTC 12673 on Non-Motile Strains Is Related to Oxidative Stress.

is a Gram-negative foodborne pathogen that causes diarrheal disease and is associated with severe post-infectious sequelae. Bacteriophages (phages) are a possible means of reducing colonization in poultry to prevent downstream human infections. However, the factors influencing phage-host interactions must be better understood before this strategy can be predictably employed.

Phage Biobank: Present Challenges and Future Perspectives.

After a century of use in human infection, the preparation and administration of therapeutic bacteriophages (phages) still relies on ad hoc partnerships of researchers, biotech companies, clinicians and regulators. There is a clear need to improve the reproducibility, safety and speed of the provision of suitable phages. Here we discuss the specific characteristics and challenges of a sustainable phage biobank and, as we build a national consortium aimed at delivering phage therapeutics, suggest a roadmap toward national biobanking and phage therapy initiatives using the Australian context as a model.

Binding of Phage-Encoded FlaGrab to Motile Flagella Inhibits Growth, Downregulates Energy Metabolism, and Requires Specific Flagellar Glycans.

Many bacterial pathogens display glycosylated surface structures that contribute to virulence, and targeting these structures is a viable strategy for pathogen control. The foodborne pathogen expresses a vast diversity of flagellar glycans, and flagellar glycosylation is essential for its virulence. Little is known about why encodes such a diverse set of flagellar glycans, but it has been hypothesized that evolutionary pressure from bacteriophages (phages) may have contributed to this diversity.

Cj1388 Is a RidA Homolog and Is Required for Flagella Biosynthesis and/or Function in .

is the leading bacterial cause of acute gastroenteritis worldwide and thus significant to public health. primarily lives in the gastrointestinal tracts of poultry and can contaminate meat during processing. Despite a small genome, the metabolic plasticity of allows proliferation in chicken ceca and mammalian host intestines, and survival in environments with a variety of temperatures, pH, osmotic conditions, and nutrient availabilities.

Deoxyinosine and 7-Deaza-2-Deoxyguanosine as Carriers of Genetic Information in the DNA of Viruses.

Several reports have demonstrated that bacteriophage DNA is refractory to manipulation, suggesting that these phages encode modified DNA. The characterized phages fall into two phylogenetic groups within the : the genera and Analysis of genomic nucleosides from several of these phages by high-pressure liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry confirmed that 100% of the 2'-deoxyguanosine (dG) residues are replaced by modified bases. Fletcherviruses replace dG with 2'-deoxyinosine, while the firehammerviruses replace dG with 2'-deoxy-7-amido-7-deazaguanosine (dADG), noncanonical nucleotides previously described, but a 100% base substitution has never been observed to have been made in a virus.

Current State of Compassionate Phage Therapy.

There is a current unmet medical need for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections, and in the absence of approved alternatives, some clinicians are turning to empirical ones, such as phage therapy, for compassionate treatment. Phage therapy is ideal for compassionate use due to its long-standing historical use and publications, apparent lack of adverse effects, and solid support by fundamental research. Increased media coverage and peer-reviewed articles have given rise to a more widespread familiarity with its therapeutic potential.

Bacterial AB toxins inhibit the growth of gut bacteria by targeting ganglioside-like glycoconjugates.

The AB toxins cholera toxin (CT) from Vibrio cholerae and heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) from enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli are notorious for their roles in diarrheal disease, but their effect on other intestinal bacteria remains unexplored. Another foodborne pathogen, Campylobacter jejuni, can mimic the GM1 ganglioside receptor of CT and LT. Here we demonstrate that the toxin B-subunits (CTB and LTB) inhibit C.

Development of an Assay for the Identification of Receptor Binding Proteins from Bacteriophages.

Recently, a large number of new technologies have been developed that exploit the unique properties of bacteriophage receptor binding proteins (RBPs). These include their use in diagnostic applications that selectively capture bacteria and as therapeutics that reduce bacterial colonization in vivo. RBPs exhibit comparable, and in many cases superior, stability, receptor specificity, and affinity to other carbohydrate binding proteins such as antibodies or lectins.

A Flagellar Glycan-Specific Protein Encoded by Campylobacter Phages Inhibits Host Cell Growth.

We previously characterized a carbohydrate binding protein, Gp047, derived from lytic Campylobacter phage NCTC 12673, as a promising diagnostic tool for the identification of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. We also demonstrated that this protein binds specifically to acetamidino-modified pseudaminic acid residues on host flagella, but the role of this protein in the phage lifecycle remains unknown. Here, we report that Gp047 is capable of inhibiting C.

Exploring the interactions between bacteriophage-encoded glycan binding proteins and carbohydrates.

There is an unprecedented interest in glycobiology due to the increasing appreciation of its impact on all aspects of life. Likewise, bacteriophage biology is enjoying a new renaissance as the post-antibiotic era fuels the search for novel ways to control harmful bacteria. Phages have spent the last 3 billion years developing ways of recognizing and manipulating bacterial surface glycans.

A receptor-binding protein of Campylobacter jejuni bacteriophage NCTC 12673 recognizes flagellin glycosylated with acetamidino-modified pseudaminic acid.

Bacteriophage receptor-binding proteins (RBPs) confer host specificity. We previously identified a putative RBP (Gp047) from the campylobacter lytic phage NCTC 12673 and demonstrated that Gp047 has a broader host range than its parent phage. While NCTC 12673 recognizes the capsular polysaccharide (CPS) of a limited number of Campylobacter jejuni isolates, Gp047 binds to a majority of C.