vb-ea-5: a lytic bacteriophage against multi-drug-resistant enterobacter aerogenes

Background and objectives: multi-drug-resistant enterobacter aerogenes is associated with various infectious diseases that cannot be easily treated by antibiotics. however, bacteriophages have potential therapeutic applications in the control of multi-drug-resistant bacteria. in this study, we aimed to isolate and characterize of a lytic bacteriophage that can lyse specifically the multi-drug-resistant (mdr) e. aerogenes. materials and methods: lytic bacteriophage was isolated from qaem hospital wastewater and characterized morphologically and genetically. next-generation sequencing was used to complete genome analysis of the isolated bacteriophage. results: based on the transmission electron microscopy feature, the isolated bacteriophage (vb-ea-5) belongs to the family myoviridae. vb-ea-5 had a latent period of 25 minutes, a burst size of 13 pfu/ml, and a burst time of 40 min. genome se- quencing revealed that vb-ea-5 has a 135324 bp genome with 41.41% gc content. the vb-ea-5 genome codes 212 orfs 90 of which were categorized into several functional classes such as dna replication and modification, transcriptional regu- lation, packaging, structural proteins, and a host lysis protein (holin). no antibiotic resistance and toxin genes were detected in the genome. sds-page of vb-ea-5 proteins exhibited three major and four minor bands with a molecular weight ranging from 18 to 50 kd. conclusion: our study suggests vb-ea-5 as a potential candidate for phage therapy against mdr e. aerogenes infections.