Phage and Vibrio cholerae

With years of exploration and expansion, Creative Biolabs has been the leading expert in the field of phage research. Our dedicated, customer-oriented teams have built a reputation for producing cost-effective products at competitive costs with fast turnaround times. We are always willing to share cutting-edge technology and information on phage and Vibrio cholerae (V. cholerae) with our global customers.

Overview of V. Cholerae

V. cholerae is a facultative anaerobic, non-sporulating, curved Gram-negative bacillus. Some strains of V. cholerae are pathogenic to humans, causing the deadly cholera disease that may originate from the consumption of undercooked or raw marine species. Seafood and water are the most common vectors for humans to contract this infection. V. cholerae has been isolated from a variety of samples, such as seawater, sediments, plankton, and shellfish from coastal environments. Furthermore, the detection of V. cholerae from food is problematic because they are present at low levels along with numerous competing microbes and they can be harmed by various food processing methods.

Fig.1 Mechanism of action of the cholera toxin.¹

Phage and V. Cholerae

Bacterial evolution involves their interaction with phages. Phages drive bacterial evolution through multiple pathways, such as mediating the horizontal transfer of gene clusters, genome rearrangements, and bactericidal selection. During bactericidal selection, bacterial strains that are resistant to phage predation have a stronger survival advantage than susceptible strains. In addition, specific V. cholerae interacts with a variety of phages, which contributes to genetic diversity and selective enrichment of specific bacterial clones.

Isolation of Vibriophage

First, a specific fecal or water sample needs to be obtained. Second, V. Cholerae strains are grown to logarithmic growth phase under appropriate conditions, then co-culture with specific samples in a culture medium and passed through filters to remove bacteria and other debris. The detection and purification of phages mainly rely on serial dilution and soft agar overlay. The key step is to pick out plaques with clear edges, add them to the prepared host bacterial solution for culture, and obtain a phage suspension for purification. The phage suspension is further propagated to obtain higher titers using the soft agar overlay method.

Phages have broad application prospects. At Creative Biolabs, our expert scientists have sufficient knowledge of phage and V. cholerae. We specialize in providing comprehensive phage services, from experimental design to results analysis. If you have any difficulties with the phage and V. cholerae projects, please contact us in time for professional assistance and detailed plans.

Reference:

1. Ramamurthy, Thandavarayan, et al. "Virulence regulation and innate host response in the pathogenicity of Vibrio cholerae." Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology 10 (2020): 572096. Under Open Access license CC BY 4.0, without modification.