Molecular Basis for Lytic Bacteriophage Resistance in Enterococci.

ABSTRACT:

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The human intestine harbors diverse communities of bacteria and bacteriophages. Given the specificity of phages for their bacterial hosts, there is growing interest in using phage therapies to combat the rising incidence of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. A significant barrier to such therapies is the rapid development of phage-resistant bacteria, highlighting the need to understand how bacteria acquire phage resistance in vivo Here we identify novel lytic phages in municipal raw sewage that kill Enterococcus faecalis, a Gram-positive opportunistic pathogen that resides in the human intestine. We show that phage infection of E. faecalis requires a predicted integral membrane protein that we have named PIPEF (for phage infection protein from E. faecalis). We fin

SUBMITTER: Duerkop BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4999554 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature