WORALUK RATTANABORVORN, PARICHAT PHUMKHACHORN AND PONGSAK RATTANACHAIKUNSOPON
Abstract
The aims of this study are to isolate bacteriophages specific to drug resistant S. sonnei DR01 and to examine their ability to inhibit its specific bacterial host in vitro. In this study, 3 lytic bacteriophages (WR1, WR2 and WR3) were isolated from different water sources. Only WR1 and WR2 were specific to the same bacteria used in this study. The EcoRI digested genomes of all bacteriophages had different patterns, indicating that they were different bacteriophages. When each bacteriophage was used to inhibit S. sonnei DR01 in vitro, it was found that they similarly reduced the bacterial cells from about 6 CFU/mL to about 5 CFU/mL within 24 h. The increase of inhibitory activity against S. sonnei DR01 was observed when all of them were used together. In conclusion, bacteriophages obtained from this study were able to inhibit drug resistant S. sonnei DR01; hence, they may be useful as biological control agents to inhibit the bacterium.