Classification of 17 newly isolated virulent bacteriophages of Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Seventeen virulent bacteriophages specific to Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains were isolated by screening various environmental samples. These isolated bacteriophages were grouped based on results obtained from restriction fragment analysis of phage genomes, random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) typing, morphology observations under transmission electron microscope, and host range analysis. All 17 bacteriophages are double-stranded DNA viruses and can be divided into 5 groups based on DNA restriction profiles. A set of 10-mer primers was used in RAPD typing of phages, and similar conclusions were obtained as for restriction fragment analysis. One phage was randomly selected from each of the 5 groups for morphology observations. Four of them had an icosahedral head with a long contractile tail, belonging to the Myoviridae family, and one phage had an icosahedral head with a short tail, thereby belonging to the Podoviridae family. Host range experiments were conducted on 7 laboratory strains and 12 clinical strains of P. aeruginosa. The results showed that 13 phages had the same infection profile, killing 8 out of 19 tested P. aeruginosa strains, and the remaining 4 phages had different and unique infection profiles. This study highlights the diversity of bacteriophages specific to P. aeruginosa in the environment.