Isolation of Escherichia coli bacteriophages from the stool of pediatric diarrhea patients in Bangladesh.

A 3-week coliphage survey was conducted in stool samples from 140 Bangladeshi children hospitalized with severe diarrhea. On the Escherichia coli indicator strain K803, all but one phage isolate had 170-kb genomes and the morphology of T4 phage. In spot tests, the individual T4-like phages infected up to 27 out of 40 diarrhea-associated E.

Comparative genomics of the T4-Like Escherichia coli phage JS98: implications for the evolution of T4 phages.

About 130 kb of sequence information was obtained from the coliphage JS98 isolated from the stool of a pediatric diarrhea patient in Bangladesh. The DNA shared up to 81% base pair identity with phage T4. The most conserved regions between JS98 and T4 were the structural genes, but their degree of conservation was not uniform.

In vitro and in vivo bacteriolytic activities of Escherichia coli phages: implications for phage therapy.

Four T4-like coliphages with broad host ranges for diarrhea-associated Escherichia coli serotypes were isolated from stool specimens from pediatric diarrhea patients and from environmental water samples. All four phages showed a highly efficient gastrointestinal passage in adult mice when added to drinking water. Viable phages were recovered from the feces in a dose-dependent way.

Phage as agents of lateral gene transfer.

When establishing lysogeny, temperate phages integrate their genome as a prophage into the bacterial chromosome. Prophages thus constitute in many bacteria a substantial part of laterally acquired DNA. Some prophages contribute lysogenic conversion genes that are of selective advantage to the bacterial host.

Transcription mapping as a tool in phage genomics: the case of the temperate Streptococcus thermophilus phage Sfi21.

For the lytic growth cycle of the temperate cos-site Streptococcus thermophilus phage Sfi21 a transcription map was developed on the basis of systematic Northern blot hybridizations. All deduced 5' ends were confirmed by primer extension analysis. Three time classes of transcripts were observed.