Characterization of four lytic transducing bacteriophages of luminescent Vibrio harveyi isolated from shrimp (Penaeus monodon) hatcheries

Four lytic bacteriophages designated as φVh1, φVh2, φVh3, and φVh4 were isolated from commercial shrimp hatcheries, possessing broad spectrum of infectivity against luminescent Vibrio harveyi isolates, considering their potential as biocontrol agent of luminescent bacterial disease in shrimp hatcheries, and were characterized by electron microscopy, genomic analysis, restriction enzyme analysis (REA), and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Three phages φVh1, φVh2, and φVh4 had an icosahedral head of 60-115 nm size with a long, noncontractile tail of 130-329 × 1-17 nm, belonged to the family Siphoviridae. φVh3 had an icosahedral head (72 ± 5 nm) with a short tail (27 × 12 nm) and belonged to Podoviridae. REA with DraI and PFGE of genomic DNA digested with ScaI and XbaI and cluster analysis of their banding patterns indicated that φVh3 was distinct from the other three siphophages. PFGE-based genome mean size of the four bacteriophages φVh1, φVh2, φVh3, and φVh4 was estimated to be about 85, 58, 64, and 107 kb, respectively. These phages had the property of generalized transduction as demonstrated by transduction with plasmid pHSG 396 with frequencies ranging from 4.1 × 10(-7) to 2 × 10(-9) per plaque-forming unit, suggesting a potential ecological role in gene transfer among aquatic vibrios.