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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #251254
Title: Comparison of two bacteriophage derived enzymes that lyse strains of Clostridium perfringens

Author
item Seal, Bruce
item Simmons, Ibn Abdul
item SIRAGUSA, GREGORY - Agtech Products, Inc
item DONOVAN, DAVID - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)

Submitted to: American Association of Avian Pathologists
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/2/2010
Publication Date: 8/2/2010
Citation: Seal, B.S., Simmons, I.M., Siragusa, G.R., Donovan, D.M. 2010. Comparison of two bacteriophage derived enzymes that lyse strains of Clostridium perfringens. American Association of Avian Pathologists.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Clostridium perfringens is a Gram-positive anaerobic spore-forming bacterium that is the third leading cause of food-borne bacterial disease among humans while in chickens C. perfringens is the presumptive etiology of necrotic enteritis. Although the organism can be controlled by antibiotics, there is increasing pressure to ban growth promoting antimicrobials in poultry feed. Moreover there is an increased incidence of C. perfringens-associated necrotic enteritis in poultry among countries that have curtailed the use of antibiotics in feed. Putative lytic enzyme genes from the genomes of bacteriophages phiCP39O and phiCP26F were cloned and expressed in E. coli. The actual and predicted amino acid sequences of the two recombinant proteins were identical at the C-terminus (cell-wall binding domain), but only 55 per cent similar to each other at the N-terminal catalytic domain. Both recombinant enzymes were able to lyse all isolates of C. perfringens assayed. The lytic activity was highly species-specific as other Clostridium spp. were not sensitive to the enzymes and provide an effective novel control for this bacterium.