ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Open Access
P.U. Megha1, S. Murugan2 and P.S. Harikumar1
1Water Quality Division, Centre for Water Resources Development and Management, Kozhikode, India.
2Department of Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology and Health Sciences, Karunya University, Coimbatore, India.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2017;11(1):559-565
https://doi.org/10.22207/JPAM.11.1.73 | © The Author(s). 2017
Received: 01/12/2016 | Accepted: 17/01/2017 | Published: 31/03/2017
Abstract

The goal of this study was to isolate and characterize phages that might be used in transport and treatment of potential E.coli pathogen in water sources. E. coli KP005067 was especially targeted because this is the dominant strain obtained from the sewage canal. The abundance of phage and its host directly from the sewage water was analysed using Epifluorescence Microscopy. The morphological characterization of the bacteriophages was studied using transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) and the genomic studies using Agarose Gel Electrophoresis. Studies on phage growth curve and its survival  rate with respect to UV irradiation was also carried out. Almost 64% of the  phages produced large, clear plaques indicating lytic activity. Phages had long noncontractile tail and icosahedral capsid head and therefore belonged to the Siphoviridae. Their estimated genome sizes was about 31 kb. One-step growth kinetics of the phage showed the latent period 15 min, rise period 20 min, and the average burst size 35 phage particles/infected cell. Also a clear downward trend in lytic activity was observed in phage groups exposed to longer than 30 minutes of UV. The characterization of the phages will be helpful in its future application as microbial tracers and bio-disinfectants in water sources.

Keywords

Bacteriophage, Sewage, Characterization, Lytic, Siphoviridae.

Article Metrics

Article View: 1369

Share This Article

© The Author(s) 2017. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.