Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology

The Korean Society for Microbiology and Biotechnology (한국미생물·생명공학회)
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Isolation and Characterization of a Weizmannia coagulans Bacteriophage Youna2 and Its Endolysin PlyYouna2

  • Bokyung Son (Department of Food Biotechnology, Dong-A University) ;
  • Youna Kim (Department of Food Science and Technology, Seoul National University of Science and Technology) ;
  • Booyoung Yu (Department of Food Science and Technology, Seoul National University of Science and Technology) ;
  • Minsuk Kong (Department of Food Science and Technology, Seoul National University of Science and Technology)
  • Received : 2023.03.16
  • Accepted : 2023.04.27
  • Published : 2023.08.28
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Abstract

Weizmannia coagulans (formerly Bacillus coagulans) is Gram-positive, and spore-forming bacteria causing food spoilage, especially in acidic canned food products. To control W. coagulans, we isolated a bacteriophage Youna2 from a sewage sludge sample. Morphological analysis revealed that phage Youna2 belongs to the Siphoviridae family with a non-contractile and flexible tail. Youna2 has 52,903 bp double-stranded DNA containing 61 open reading frames. There are no lysogeny-related genes, suggesting that Youna2 is a virulent phage. plyYouna2, a putative endolysin gene was identified in the genome of Youna2 and predicted to be composed of a N-acetylmuramoyl-L-alanine amidase domain (PF01520) at the N-terminus and unknown function DUF5776 domain (PF19087) at the C-terminus. While phage Youna2 has a narrow host range, infecting only certain strains of W. coagulans, PlyYouna2 exhibited a broad antimicrobial spectrum beyond the Bacillus genus. Interestingly, PlyYouna2 can lyse Gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Yersinia enterocolitica, Pseudomonas putida and Cronobacter sakazakii without other additives to destabilize bacterial outer membrane. To the best of our knowledge, Youna2 is the first W. coagulans-infecting phage and we speculate its endolysin PlyYouna2 can provide the basis for the development of a novel biocontrol agent against various foodborne pathogens.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No., no. 2020R1C1C1008127, to M.K.) and Green Fusion Technology Program funded by Ministry of Environment, Republic of Korea (to B.S.).

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