Burkholderia cenocepacia Prophages-Prevalence, Chromosome Location and Major Genes Involved.

Burkholderia cenocepacia, is a Gram-negative opportunistic pathogen that belongs to Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) group. BCC representatives carry various pathogenicity factors and can infect humans and plants. Phages as bacterial viruses play a significant role in biodiversity and ecological balance in the environment. Specifically, horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and lysogenic conversion (temperate phages) influence microbial diversification and fitness. In this study, we describe the prevalence and gene content of prophages in 16 fully sequenced B. cenocepacia genomes stored in NCBI database. The analysis was conducted in silico by manual and automatic approaches. Sixty-three potential prophage regions were found and classified as intact, incomplete, questionable, and artifacts. The regions were investigated for the presence of known virulence factors, resulting in the location of sixteen potential pathogenicity mechanisms, including toxin⁻antitoxin systems (TA), Major Facilitator Superfamily (MFS) transporters and responsible for drug resistance. Investigation of the region's closest neighborhood highlighted three groups of genes with the highest occurrence-tRNA-Arg, dehydrogenase family proteins, and ABC transporter substrate-binding proteins. Searches for antiphage systems such as BacteRiophage EXclusion (BREX) and Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) in the analyzed strains suggested 10 sequence sets of CRISPR elements. Our results suggest that intact B. cenocepacia prophages may provide an evolutionary advantage to the bacterium, while domesticated prophages may help to maintain important genes.

The temperate Burkholderia phage AP3 of the Peduovirinae shows efficient antimicrobial activity against B. cenocepacia of the IIIA lineage.

Burkholderia phage AP3 (vB_BceM_AP3) is a temperate virus of the Myoviridae and the Peduovirinae subfamily (P2likevirus genus). This phage specifically infects multidrug-resistant clinical Burkholderia cenocepacia lineage IIIA strains commonly isolated from cystic fibrosis patients. AP3 exhibits high pairwise nucleotide identity (61.7 %) to Burkholderia phage KS5, specific to the same B. cenocepacia host, and has 46.7-49.5 % identity to phages infecting other species of Burkholderia. The lysis cassette of these related phages has a similar organization (putative antiholin, putative holin, endolysin, and spanins) and shows 29-98 % homology between specific lysis genes, in contrast to Enterobacteria phage P2, the hallmark phage of this genus. The AP3 and KS5 lysis genes have conserved locations and high amino acid sequence similarity. The AP3 bacteriophage particles remain infective up to 5 h at pH 4-10 and are stable at 60 °C for 30 min, but are sensitive to chloroform, with no remaining infective particles after 24 h of treatment. AP3 lysogeny can occur by stable genomic integration and by pseudo-lysogeny. The lysogenic bacterial mutants did not exhibit any significant changes in virulence compared to wild-type host strain when tested in the Galleria mellonella moth wax model. Moreover, AP3 treatment of larvae infected with B. cenocepacia revealed a significant increase (P < 0.0001) in larvae survival in comparison to AP3-untreated infected larvae. AP3 showed robust lytic activity, as evidenced by its broad host range, the absence of increased virulence in lysogenic isolates, the lack of bacterial gene disruption conditioned by bacterial tRNA downstream integration site, and the absence of detected toxin sequences. These data suggest that the AP3 phage is a promising potent agent against bacteria belonging to the most common B. cenocepacia IIIA lineage strains.

Burkholderia cepacia complex Phage-Antibiotic Synergy (PAS): antibiotics stimulate lytic phage activity.

The Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) is a group of at least 18 species of Gram-negative opportunistic pathogens that can cause chronic lung infection in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Bcc organisms possess high levels of innate antimicrobial resistance, and alternative therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. One proposed alternative treatment is phage therapy, the therapeutic application of bacterial viruses (or bacteriophages). Recently, some phages have been observed to form larger plaques in the presence of sublethal concentrations of certain antibiotics; this effect has been termed phage-antibiotic synergy (PAS). Those reports suggest that some antibiotics stimulate increased production of phages under certain conditions. The aim of this study is to examine PAS in phages that infect Burkholderia cenocepacia strains C6433 and K56-2. Bcc phages KS12 and KS14 were tested for PAS, using 6 antibiotics representing 4 different drug classes. Of the antibiotics tested, the most pronounced effects were observed for meropenem, ciprofloxacin, and tetracycline. When grown with subinhibitory concentrations of these three antibiotics, cells developed a chain-like arrangement, an elongated morphology, and a clustered arrangement, respectively. When treated with progressively higher antibiotic concentrations, both the sizes of plaques and phage titers increased, up to a maximum. B. cenocepacia K56-2-infected Galleria mellonella larvae treated with phage KS12 and low-dose meropenem demonstrated increased survival over controls treated with KS12 or antibiotic alone. These results suggest that antibiotics can be combined with phages to stimulate increased phage production and/or activity and thus improve the efficacy of bacterial killing.

Comparative analysis of two phenotypically-similar but genomically-distinct Burkholderia cenocepacia-specific bacteriophages.

BACKGROUND: Genomic analysis of bacteriophages infecting the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) is an important preliminary step in the development of a phage therapy protocol for these opportunistic pathogens. The objective of this study was to characterize KL1 (vB_BceS_KL1) and AH2 (vB_BceS_AH2), two novel Burkholderia cenocepacia-specific siphoviruses isolated from environmental samples. RESULTS: KL1 and AH2 exhibit several unique phenotypic similarities: they infect the same B. cenocepacia strains, they require prolonged incubation at 30°C for the formation of plaques at low titres, and they do not form plaques at similar titres following incubation at 37°C. However, despite these similarities, we have determined using whole-genome pyrosequencing that these phages show minimal relatedness to one another. The KL1 genome is 42,832 base pairs (bp) in length and is most closely related to Pseudomonas phage 73 (PA73). In contrast, the AH2 genome is 58,065 bp in length and is most closely related to Burkholderia phage BcepNazgul. Using both BLASTP and HHpred analysis, we have identified and analyzed the putative virion morphogenesis, lysis, DNA binding, and MazG proteins of these two phages. Notably, MazG homologs identified in cyanophages have been predicted to facilitate infection of stationary phase cells and may contribute to the unique plaque phenotype of KL1 and AH2. CONCLUSIONS: The nearly indistinguishable phenotypes but distinct genomes of KL1 and AH2 provide further evidence of both vast diversity and convergent evolution in the BCC-specific phage population.

Cangene gold medal award lecture - Genomic analysis and modification of Burkholderia cepacia complex bacteriophages.

The Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) is a group of 17 Gram-negative predominantly environmental bacterial species that cause potentially fatal opportunistic infections in cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Although its prevalence in these individuals is lower than that of Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa , the Bcc remains a serious problem in the CF community because of the pathogenicity, transmissibility, and inherent antibiotic resistance of these organisms. An alternative treatment for Bcc infections that is currently being developed is phage therapy, the clinical use of viruses that infect bacteria. To assess the suitability of individual phage isolates for therapeutic use, the complete genome sequences of a panel of Bcc-specific phages were determined and analyzed. These sequences encode a broad range of proteins with a gradient of relatedness to phage and bacterial gene products from Burkholderia and other genera. The majority of these phages were found not to encode virulence factors, and despite their predominantly temperate nature, a proof-of-principle experiment has shown that they may be modified to a lytic form. Both the genomic characterization and subsequent engineering of Bcc-specific phages are fundamental to the development of an effective phage therapy strategy for these bacteria.

Characterization of DC1, a broad-host-range Bcep22-like podovirus.

Bcep22-like phages are a recently described group of podoviruses that infect strains of Burkholderia cenocepacia. We have isolated and characterized a novel member of this group named DC1. This podovirus shows many genomic similarities to BcepIL02 and Bcep22, but it infects strains belonging to multiple Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) species.

The promise of bacteriophage therapy for Burkholderia cepacia complex respiratory infections.

In recent times, increased attention has been given to evaluating the efficacy of phage therapy, especially in scenarios where the bacterial infectious agent of interest is highly antibiotic resistant. In this regard, phage therapy is especially applicable to infections caused by the Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) since members of the BCC are antibiotic pan-resistant. Current studies in BCC phage therapy are unique from many other avenues of phage therapy research in that the investigation is not only comprised of phage isolation, in vitro phage characterization and assessment of in vivo infection model efficacy, but also adapting aerosol drug delivery techniques to aerosol phage formulation delivery and storage.

Genomic analysis and relatedness of P2-like phages of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.

BACKGROUND: The Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) is comprised of at least seventeen Gram-negative species that cause infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Because BCC bacteria are broadly antibiotic resistant, phage therapy is currently being investigated as a possible alternative treatment for these infections. The purpose of our study was to sequence and characterize three novel BCC-specific phages: KS5 (vB_BceM-KS5 or vB_BmuZ-ATCC 17616), KS14 (vB_BceM-KS14) and KL3 (vB_BamM-KL3 or vB_BceZ-CEP511). RESULTS: KS5, KS14 and KL3 are myoviruses with the A1 morphotype. The genomes of these phages are between 32317 and 40555 base pairs in length and are predicted to encode between 44 and 52 proteins. These phages have over 50% of their proteins in common with enterobacteria phage P2 and so can be classified as members of the Peduovirinae subfamily and the "P2-like viruses" genus. The BCC phage proteins similar to those encoded by P2 are predominantly structural components involved in virion morphogenesis. As prophages, KS5 and KL3 integrate into an AMP nucleosidase gene and a threonine tRNA gene, respectively. Unlike other P2-like viruses, the KS14 prophage is maintained as a plasmid. The P2 E+E' translational frameshift site is conserved among these three phages and so they are predicted to use frameshifting for expression of two of their tail proteins. The lysBC genes of KS14 and KL3 are similar to those of P2, but in KS5 the organization of these genes suggests that they may have been acquired via horizontal transfer from a phage similar to λ. KS5 contains two sequence elements that are unique among these three phages: an ISBmu2-like insertion sequence and a reverse transcriptase gene. KL3 encodes an EcoRII-C endonuclease/methylase pair and Vsr endonuclease that are predicted to function during the lytic cycle to cleave non-self DNA, protect the phage genome and repair methylation-induced mutations. CONCLUSIONS: KS5, KS14 and KL3 are the first BCC-specific phages to be identified as P2-like. As KS14 has previously been shown to be active against Burkholderia cenocepacia in vivo, genomic characterization of these phages is a crucial first step in the development of these and similar phages for clinical use against the BCC.

Efficacy of bacteriophage therapy in a model of Burkholderia cenocepacia pulmonary infection.

The therapeutic potential of bacteriophages (phages) in a mouse model of acute Burkholderia cenocepacia pulmonary infection was assessed. Phage treatment was administered by either intranasal inhalation or intraperitoneal injection. Bacterial density, macrophage inflammatory protein 2 (MIP-2), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) levels were significantly reduced in lungs of mice treated with intraperitoneal phages (P < .05). No significant differences in lung bacterial density or MIP-2 levels were found between untreated mice and mice treated with intranasal phages, intraperitoneal ultraviolet-inactivated phages, or intraperitoneal lambda phage control mice. Mock-infected mice treated with phage showed no significant increase in lung MIP-2 or TNF-alpha levels compared with mock-infected/mock-treated mice. We have demonstrated the efficacy of phage therapy in an acute B. cenocepacia lung infection model. Systemic phage administration was more effective than inhalational administration, suggesting that circulating phages have better access to bacteria in lungs than do topical phages.

Experimental bacteriophage therapy increases survival of Galleria mellonella larvae infected with clinically relevant strains of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.

The Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) is a group of bacterial pathogens that are highly antibiotic resistant and associated with debilitating respiratory infections. Although bacteriophages of the BCC have been isolated and characterized, no studies have yet examined phage therapy against the BCC in vivo. In a caterpillar infection model, we show that BCC phage therapy is an alternative treatment possibility and is highly effective under specific conditions.

Genomic sequence and activity of KS10, a transposable phage of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.

BACKGROUND: The Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) is a versatile group of Gram negative organisms that can be found throughout the environment in sources such as soil, water, and plants. While BCC bacteria can be involved in beneficial interactions with plants, they are also considered opportunistic pathogens, specifically in patients with cystic fibrosis and chronic granulomatous disease. These organisms also exhibit resistance to many antibiotics, making conventional treatment often unsuccessful. KS10 was isolated as a prophage of B. cenocepacia K56-2, a clinically relevant strain of the BCC. Our objective was to sequence the genome of this phage and also determine if this prophage encoded any virulence determinants. RESULTS: KS10 is a 37,635 base pairs (bp) transposable phage of the opportunistic pathogen Burkholderia cenocepacia. Genome sequence analysis and annotation of this phage reveals that KS10 shows the closest sequence homology to Mu and BcepMu. KS10 was found to be a prophage in three different strains of B. cenocepacia, including strains K56-2, J2315, and C5424, and seven tested clinical isolates of B. cenocepacia, but no other BCC species. A survey of 23 strains and 20 clinical isolates of the BCC revealed that KS10 is able to form plaques on lawns of B. ambifaria LMG 19467, B. cenocepacia PC184, and B. stabilis LMG 18870. CONCLUSION: KS10 is a novel phage with a genomic organization that differs from most phages in that its capsid genes are not aligned into one module but rather separated by approximately 11 kb, giving evidence of one or more prior genetic rearrangements. There were no potential virulence factors identified in KS10, though many hypothetical proteins were identified with no known function.

Toward modern inhalational bacteriophage therapy: nebulization of bacteriophages of Burkholderia cepacia complex.

Antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections have renewed interest in finding substitute methods of treatment. The purpose of the present in vitro study was to investigate the possibility of respiratory delivery of a Burkholderia cepacia complex (BCC) bacteriophage by nebulized aerosol administration. Bacteriophages in isotonic saline were aerosolized with Pari LC star and eFlow nebulizers, at titers with mean value (standard deviation) of 2.15 x 10(8) (1.63 x 10(8)) plaque-forming unit (PFU)/mL in 2.5-mL nebulizer fills. The breathing pattern of an adult was simulated using a pulmonary waveform generator. During breath simulation, the size distributions of the nebulized aerosol were measured using phase doppler anemometry (PDA). Efficiency of nebulizer delivery was subsequently determined by collection of aerosol on low resistance filters and measurement of bacteriophage titers. These filter titers were used as input data to a mathematical lung deposition model to predict regional deposition of bacteriophages in the lung and initial bacteriophage titers in the liquid surface layer of each conducting airway generation. The results suggest that BCC bacteriophages can be nebulized successfully within a reasonable delivery time and predicted titers in the lung indicate that this method may hold potential for treatment of bacterial lung infections common among cystic fibrosis patients.

Divergence and mosaicism among virulent soil phages of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.

We have determined the genomic sequences of four virulent myophages, Bcep1, Bcep43, BcepB1A, and Bcep781, whose hosts are soil isolates of the Burkholderia cepacia complex. Despite temporal and spatial separations between initial isolations, three of the phages (Bcep1, Bcep43, and Bcep781, designated the Bcep781 group) exhibit 87% to 99% sequence identity to one another and most coding region differences are due to synonymous nucleotide substitutions, a hallmark of neutral genetic drift. Phage BcepB1A has a very different genome organization but is clearly a mosaic with respect to many of the genes of the Bcep781 group, as is a defective prophage element in Photorhabdus luminescens. Functions were assigned to 27 out of 71 predicted genes of Bcep1 despite extreme sequence divergence. Using a lambda repressor fusion technique, 10 Bcep781-encoded proteins were identified for their ability to support homotypic interactions. While head and tail morphogenesis genes have retained canonical gene order despite extreme sequence divergence, genes involved in DNA metabolism and host lysis are not organized as in other phages. This unusual genome arrangement may contribute to the ability of the Bcep781-like phages to maintain a unified genomic type. However, the Bcep781 group phages can also engage in lateral gene transfer events with otherwise unrelated phages, a process that contributes to the broader-scale genomic mosaicism prevalent among the tailed phages.