R18C is a new viable P2-like bacteriophage of rabbit origin infecting Citrobacter rodentium and Shigella sonnei strains

• Published in: Archives of virology Vol. 164; no. 12; pp. 3157 - 3160
• Main Authors: Sváb, Domonkos, Horváth, Balázs, Rohde, Manfred, Maróti, Gergely, Tóth, István
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Vienna Springer Vienna 01-12-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Annotated Sequence Record; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Citrobacter; Infectious Diseases; Medical Microbiology; Phages; Prophages; Shigella; Virology
• ISSN: 0304-8608; 1432-8798
• DOI: 10.1007/s00705-019-04424-5

Here, we report a novel virulent P2-like bacteriophage, R18C, isolated from rabbit faeces, which, in addition to
Escherichia coli
K-12 strains, was able to be propagated on
Citrobacter rodentium
strain ICC169 and a range of
Shigella sonnei
strains with high efficiency of plating (EOP). It represents the first lytic bacteriophage originating from rabbit and the first infectious P2-like phage of animal origin. In the three characteristic moron-containing regions of P2-like phages, R18C contains genes with unknown function that have so far only been found in cryptic P2-like prophages.