Isolation and characterization of bacteriophages from the human skin microbiome that infect Staphylococcus epidermidis.

ABSTRACT: Phage therapy might be a useful approach for the treatment of nosocomial infections; however, only few lytic phages suitable for this application are available for the opportunistic pathogen, Staphylococcus epidermidis. In the current study, we developed an efficient method to isolate bacteriophages present within the human skin microbiome, by using niche-specific S. epidermidis as the host for phage propagation. Staphylococcus epidermidis was identified on the forehead of 92% of human subjects tested. These isolates were then used to propagate phages present in the same skin sample. Plaques were observable on bacterial lawns in 46% of the cases where S. epidermidis was isolated. A total of eight phage genomes were genetically characterized, including the previo

SUBMITTER: Valente LG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10117716 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature