• Korean Journal of Poultry Science
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.283-290
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• 2013

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary bacteriophage CP supplementation on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood profiles, visceral organ weight, meat quality and fecal microflora in broilers. A total of 340 1-d-old ROSS 308 broilers (mixed gender) with an initial average body weight (BW) of $41.14{\pm}0.17g$ were randomly allotted to 4 treatments with 5 replicate pens per treatment and 17 broilers per pen for 31 days. Dietary treatments were: 1) CON, control diet, 2) CP05, CON + 0.05% bacteriophage CP, 3) CP10, CON + 0.10% bacteriophage CP and 4) CP15, CON + 0.15% bacteriophage CP. During d 15 to d 31, broilers fed CP15 diet had higher (P<0.05) body weight gain and feed intake than broilers fed CON diet. Overall, body weight gain in CP10 and CP15 treatment groups was greater (P<0.05) than that in CON treatment and feed intake was higher (P<0.05) in CP15 treatment than that in CON. Apparent total tract nutrient digestibility and blood characteristics did not differ (P>0.05) among treatments. The water holding capacity of breast meat increased (P<0.05) in broiler fed the diets containing bacteriophage CP compared with those fed the CON diet. Other meat characteristics such as pH value, breast muscle color ($L^*$, $a^*$, $b^*$) and drip loss were unaffected by dietary supplementation of bacteriophage CP. The weight of bursa of Fabricius increased (P<0.05) in CP05 when compared with CON. No significant difference was observed (P>0.05) among treatments in visceral weight and fecal microflora concentrations of Lactobacillus spp., Clostridium perfringens, Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp. In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 0.10 and 0.15% bacteriophage CP could improve the growth performance.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.149-151
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• 2018

Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, spore-forming pathogenic bacterium, which belongs to the Clostridiaceae family. C. perfringens causes diseases including food poisoning in vertebrates and intestinal tract of humans. Bacteriophages that can kill target bacteria specifically have been considered as one of control methods for bacterial pathogens. Here, we report a draft genome sequence of the bacteriophage CP3 effective to C. perfringens. The phage genome comprises 52,068 bp with a G + C content of 34.0%. The draft genome has 74 protein-coding genes, 29 of which have predicted functions from BLASTp analysis. Others are conserved proteins with unknown functions. No RNAs were found in the genome.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.160-170
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• 2016

The increasing spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens has raised the interest in alternative antimicrobial treatments. In our study, the functionally active gram-negative bacterium bacteriophage CP933 endolysin was produced in Nicotiana benthamiana plants by a combination of transient expression and vacuole targeting strategies, and its antimicrobial activity was investigated. Expression of the cp933 gene in E. coli led to growth inhibition and lysis of the host cells or production of trace amounts of CP933. Cytoplasmic expression of the cp933 gene in plants using Potato virus X-based transient expression vectors (pP2C2S and pGR107) resulted in death of the apical portion of experimental plants. To protect plants against the toxic effects of the CP933 protein, the cp933 coding region was fused at its Nterminus to an N-terminal signal peptide from the potato proteinase inhibitor I to direct CP933 to the delta-type vacuoles. Plants producing the CP933 fusion protein did not exhibit the severe toxic effects seen with the unfused protein and the level of expression was 0.16 mg/g of plant tissue. Antimicrobial assays revealed that, in contrast to gram-negative bacterium E. coli (BL21(DE3)), the gram-positive plant pathogenic bacterium Clavibacter michiganensis was more susceptible to the plant-produced CP933, showing 18% growth inhibition. The results of our experiments demonstrate that the combination of transient expression and protein targeting to the delta vacuoles is a promising approach to produce functionally active proteins that exhibit toxicity when expressed in plant cells.