Isolation and characterization of lytic vibriophage against Vibrio cholerae O1 from environmental water samples in Kelantan, Malaysia

Water samples from a variety of sources in Kelantan, Malaysia (lakes, ponds, rivers, ditches, fish farms, and sewage) were screened for the presence of bacteriophages infecting Vibrio cholerae. Ten strains of V. cholerae that appeared to be free of inducible prophages were used as the host strains. Eleven bacteriophage isolates were obtained by plaque assay, three of which were lytic and further characterized. The morphologies of the three lytic phages were similar with each having an icosahedral head (ca. 50-60 nm in diameter), a neck, and a sheathed tail (ca. 90-100 nm in length) characteristic of the family Myoviridae. The genomes of the lytic phages were indistinguishable in length (ca. 33.5 kb), nuclease sensitivity (digestible with DNase I, but not RNase A or S1 nuclease), and restriction enzyme sensitivity (identical banding patterns with HindIII, no digestion with seven other enzymes). Testing for infection against 46 strains of V. cholerae and 16 other species of enteric bacteria revealed that all three isolates had a narrow host range and were only capable of infecting V. cholerae O1 El Tor Inaba. The similar morphologies, indistinguishable genome characteristics, and identical host ranges of these lytic isolates suggests that they represent one phage, or several very closely related phages, present in different water sources. These isolates are good candidates for further bio-phage-control studies.