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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2005, p. 1387-1393, Vol. 71, No. 3
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.3.1387-1393.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Isolation and Characterization of Novel Giant Stenotrophomonas maltophilia Phage SMA5

Hsiao-Chuan Chang,¹ Chiy-Rong Chen,¹ Juey-Wen Lin,² Gwan-Han Shen,³ Kai-Ming Chang,³ Yi-Hsiung Tseng,^1,4* and Shu-Fen Weng^1*

Institute of Molecular Biology,¹ Institute of Biochemistry, National Chung Hsing University,² Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Section, Taichung Veterans General Hospital,³ Center for Research and Development, Chungtai Institute of Health Sciences and Technology, Taichung, Taiwan⁴

Received 1 June 2004/ Accepted 1 October 2004

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is one of the most prevalent opportunistic bacteria causing nosocomial infections. It has become problematic because most of the isolates are resistant to multiple antibiotics, and therefore, development of phage therapy has attracted strong attention. In this study, eight S. maltophilia phages were isolated from clinical samples including patient specimens, catheter-related devices, and wastewater. These phages can be divided into four distinct groups based on host range and digestibility of the phage DNAs with different restriction endonucleases. One of them, designated SMA5, was further characterized. Electron microscopy showed it resembled Myoviridae, with an isometric head (90 nm in diameter), a tail (90 nm long), a baseplate (25 nm wide), and short tail fibers. The SMA5 double-stranded DNA, refractory to digestion by most restriction enzymes, was tested and estimated to be 250 kb by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. This genome size is second to that of the largest phage, KZ of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. In sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, 25 virion proteins were visualized. N-terminal sequencing of four of them suggested that each of them might have had its N terminus cleaved off. Among the 87 S. maltophilia strains collected in this study, only 61 were susceptible to SMA5, indicating that more phages are needed toward a phage therapy strategy. Since literature search yielded no information about S. maltophilia phages, SMA5 appears to be the first reported.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address for S.-F. Weng: Institute of Molecular Biology, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan. Phone: 886-4-2285-1885. Fax: 886-4-2287-4879. E-mail: sfweng{at}dragon.nchu.edu.tw. Mailing address for Y.-H. Tseng: Center for Re-search and Development, Chungtai Institute of Health Sciences and Technology, Taichung 406, Taiwan. Phone: 886-4-2239-8072. Fax: 886-4-2239-5474. E-mail: yhtseng{at}chtai.ctc.edu.tw.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, March 2005, p. 1387-1393, Vol. 71, No. 3
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.3.1387-1393.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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