Expanding the host range of lytic bacteriophages through recombination and selection

• Grant number: 24/12945-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: April 30, 2028
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Genetics - Molecular Genetics and Genetics of Microorganisms
• Principal Investigator: Beny Spira
• Grantee: Katia Alexandra Ospino Bejarano
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 21/10577-0 - Biology of Bacteria and Bacteriophages Research Center, AP.CEPID

Abstract

One of the main reasons that bacteriophages are not widely used for the treatment of bacterial infections is their very narrow host ranges, meaning that they are able to infect only one or few phylogenetically closed species and even in a single species, they can infect only a fraction of the known strains. This specificity may be sometimes overcome by introducing or selecting mutations in the tail fibers of the bacteriophage. A different approach that can be applied to expand the phage host range involves the directed evolution of phages through recombination. Different but closely related phages with the ability to infect different bacterial hosts are mixed and grown with a set of bacterial strains for several cycles until the evolved phage is able to infect all strains. This new phage displays an expanded host range and will be molecularly characterized.