Disease relevance of pE33L466_0177

• Bacillus subtilis phage SP10 DNA has two oxopyrimidines, thymidine 5'-monophosphate (dTMP) and its hypermodified analog (YdTMP) [1].
• The glnA gene from the human pathogen Streptococcus agalactiae was cloned from a genomic library prepared with the lambda phage vector lambdaDASHII [2].
• Bacteriophage CP-51, originally reported as a generalized transducing phage for Bacillus cereus and B. anthracis, has been shown to carry out generalized transduction in several strains of B. thuringiensis [3].
• In all, this study represents the first genomic and functional description of two historically important phages and is part of a broader investigation into contributions of phage to the B. anthracis life cycle [4].
• Identification of the Bacillus anthracis (gamma) phage receptor [5].

High impact information on pE33L466_0177

• Interestingly, the PPOMedUMP content of modB DNA seemingly reflects the maximum degree to which phage DNA can be pyrophosphorylated, since the loss of YdTMP from modBmodC and modBmodD DNAs results in a unilateral increase in HOMedUMP content [1].
• Since in vitro Pol III was capable of replicating the uracil-containing DNA found in this phage, the sensitivity of the purified enzyme to reduced HPUra was examined using phage DNA as template-primer and dUTP as substrate; these new substrates did not affect the sensitivity of the host enzyme to the drug [6].
• Previous results with 6-(p-hydroxyphenylazo)-uracil (HPUra), a specific inhibitor of Pol III and DNA replication in uninfected cells, suggest that Pol III is not involved in phage DNA replication, due to its resistance to this drug [6].
• The complete genomic sequences of the temperate W phage, referred to as Wbeta, and its lytic variant gamma were determined and found to encode 53 open reading frames each, spanning 40,864 bp and 37,373 bp, respectively [4].
• These isolates differed significantly from classic Bacillus anthracis by the following criteria: motility, resistance to the gamma phage, and, for isolates from Cameroon, resistance to penicillin G [7].

Chemical compound and disease context of pE33L466_0177

• We found that most isolates of B. cereus that were sensitive to phage P7 or inhibited the growth of Erwinia herbicola produced zwittermicin A; therefore, phage typing and E. herbicola inhibition provided indirect, but rapid screening tests for identification of zwittermicin A-producing isolates [8].

Biological context of pE33L466_0177

• In addition, some B. cereus transductants lost prototrophy but retained a 44-kb plasmid, consistent with the presence of TP21 helper phage [9].
• Bam35 morphology and genome organization resemble those of PRD1, a lytic phage infecting gram-negative bacteria [10].
• Shotgun insertion of a promoterless lacZ gene into the phage genome permitted the identification of a clone producing large amounts of beta-galactosidase (beta Gal), indicating the transcription of the reporter gene from a strong phage promoter [11].
• Sequence analysis of this molecule, named pGIL01, showed the presence of at least 30 ORFs, five of which displayed similarity with proteins involved in phage systems: a B-type family DNA polymerase, a LexA-like repressor, two potential muramidases and a DNA-packaging protein (distantly related to the P9 protein of the tectiviral phage PRD1) [12].
• Phage wx capable of reconverting Bacillus cereus strain W derivatives, cured to lose megacin A (phospholipase A) production into megacin A-producing cultures, exhibits unusual kinetics of multiplication; its clear mutant, phage wxc, behaves similarly [13].

Associations of pE33L466_0177 with chemical compounds

• The assay for phage P7 sensitivity was particularly useful because of its simplicity and rapidity and because 22 of the 23 P7-sensitive isolates tested produced zwittermicin A [8].
• All of the B. cereus transductants contained the phage as a 44-kb plasmid, and each could transduce both the cys and trp genes to other B. cereus auxotrophs, albeit at lower frequencies than those for the B. thuringiensis transducing phage [9].
• The phage-bound enzyme fd-betaLII was shown to be active on benzylpenicillin as substrate; it could be inactivated by complexation of the essential zinc(II) ion with EDTA and reactivated by addition of a zinc(II) salt [14].
• The selection process was first successfully tested on model mixtures containing fd-betaLII plus either a dummy phage, a phage displaying an inactive mutant of the serine beta-lactamase TEM-1, or inactive and low-activity mutants of betaLII [14].

Other interactions of pE33L466_0177

• The metallo-beta-lactamase betaLII from Bacillus cereus 569/H/9 was displayed on the filamentous phage fd [14].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of pE33L466_0177

• Reverse transcriptase PCR analysis confirmed strong induction at the dicistronic Wbeta locus and at four other phage loci in B. anthracis and/or B. cereus lysogens [4].
• B. thuringiensis 97-27, a strain which, by sequence analysis, is predicted to harbor a GamR-like protein, is resistant to the phage but nevertheless displays phage binding [5].
• Electron microscopy reveals the binding of the phage to the surface of the parental strain and its absence from the GamR mutant [5].
• Here we describe the use of a sensitive, inexpensive, amperometric, phage-based biosensor for the detection of extremely low concentrations of Bacillus cereus and Mycobacterium smegmatis as models for Bacillus anthracis (the causative agent of anthrax) and for Mycobacterium tuberculosis (the causative agent of tuberculosis), respectively [15].

References