Isolation and characterization of a virulent phage H6 infecting Lactobacillus brevis from the fermented Chinese cabbage

Abstract

A virulent phage H6 infecting Lactobacillus brevis was isolated from the fermented Chinese cabbage samples, and its biological characteristics were determined. The electron microscope result showed that the phage had an icosahedra head of 93.3 nm in diameter and a long contractile tail about 166.6 nm in length, and it was classified as a lytic phage of Myoviridae in Caudovirales. The restriction enzymes analysis indicated that phage H6 was a dsDNA virus with a genome size of approximately 59.6–61.2 kb. The SDS-PAGE analysis displayed six protein bands with different amounts. As inferred from the one-step growth curve, the latent period of phage H6 was about 90 min and the burst size was about 40.4 pfu/infection center.