Abstract

Wayne Lau Cheng

This study, has described the isolation of two T4-like JH11 and JH14 phages. All bacteriophages produced clear plaques in double Luria Bertani (LB) agar, but JH11 produced the larger plaques. These phages lysed Escherichia coli O141: F18 (ETEC), they have icosahedral heads, necks and contractile tails, and belonged to the Myoviridae family. The genomes of these phages were a strand DNA, predicted to be larger than 2 kb. Titer of the two phages were unaffected by exposure to pH 5 - 9 for 16 h. Among the phages, JH11 and JH14 were resistance to enterotoxigenic E. coli O141: F18 (ETEC). Both phages contain three abundant protein bands with approximate molecular sizes of 80, 75 and 50 kDa for JH11, and 50, 38, and 36 kDa for JH14. According to the blast results, the phage JH11 random clones are in close relation with phage T4 gene 23 for major capsid protein MVSS (98%), ECML-134 (98%), T6(97%) and T4 (96% identity) identity. Phage JH14 random clones are in close relation with HX01 (96%), CEV1 (95%) and T4 (93 %) identity. The two strains belong to T4-like phage genus. Gene of JH11 and JH14 were (93%) identical.