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The University of Maine

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Bacteriophage

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Full-Text Articles in Microbiology

Understanding The Role Of Prophage Encoded Polymorphic Toxins In Mycobacterial Superinfection Immunity And Drug Resistance, Dakota Archambault May 2021

Understanding The Role Of Prophage Encoded Polymorphic Toxins In Mycobacterial Superinfection Immunity And Drug Resistance, Dakota Archambault

Honors College

Mycobacterium abscessusis the leading cause of lung infection in cystic fibrosis patients and is often resistant to all antibiotics. There is an urgent need for alternative therapies such as lytic bacteriophage (viruses that infect bacteria). Phage therapy has been successful in the treatment of a drug-resistantM. abscessusinfection in a teenaged cystic fibrosis patient but there are challenges to broad use as most M. abscessusisolates are highly resistant to lytic bacteriophage infection. Prophage, or integrated bacteriophage genomes within the M. abscessusgenome, likely defend against phage superinfection via prophage-encoded viral defense systems. The Molloy lab has shown that the Mab cluster R …


Characterizing The Diversity Of Cluster R Prophage In Mycobacterium Abscessus, Colin Welch May 2021

Characterizing The Diversity Of Cluster R Prophage In Mycobacterium Abscessus, Colin Welch

Honors College

Mycobacterium abscessus is a mycobacterial pathogen responsible for pulmonary and disseminated infections in susceptible individuals and often is resistant to all antibiotic therapies, with cure rates ranging from 25% to 58% (Degiacomi et al., 2019).Investigating the mechanisms of extensive resistance in M. abscessus lends opportunities to develop more effective treatments. Prophage, viral sequences integrated into bacterial genomes, contribute to virulence and fitness in many bacterial pathogens including Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Vibrio cholerae (Fortier & Sekulovic, 2013). Yet, prophage in pathogenic mycobacteria are not well understood or studied. Recent work has demonstrated that the Mycobacterium chelonae prophage, McProf can function …