RT Journal Article SR Electronic(1) A1 Wang, Yahui A1 Wang, Wei A1 Lv, Yongqiang A1 Zheng, Wangliang A1 Mi, Zhiqiang A1 Pei, Guangqian A1 An, Xiaoping A1 Xu, Xiaomeng A1 Han, Chuanyin A1 Liu, Jie A1 Zhou, Changlin A1 Tong, YigangYR 2014 T1 Characterization and complete genome sequence analysis of novel bacteriophage IME-EFm1 infecting Enterococcus faecium JF Journal of General Virology, VO 95 IS 11 SP 2565 OP 2575 DO https://doi.org/10.1099/vir.0.067553-0 PB Microbiology Society, SN 1465-2099, AB We isolated and characterized a novel virulent bacteriophage, IME-EFm1, specifically infecting multidrug-resistant Enterococcus faecium. IME-EFm1 is morphologically similar to members of the family Siphoviridae. It was found capable of lysing a wide range of our E. faecium collections, including two strains resistant to vancomycin. One-step growth tests revealed the host lysis activity of phage IME-EFm1, with a latent time of 30 min and a large burst size of 116 p.f.u. per cell. These biological characteristics suggested that IME-EFm1 has the potential to be used as a therapeutic agent. The complete genome of IME-EFm1 was 42 597 bp, and was linear, with terminally non-redundant dsDNA and a G+C content of 35.2 mol%. The termini of the phage genome were determined with next-generation sequencing and were further confirmed by nuclease digestion analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a complete genome sequence of a bacteriophage infecting E. faecium. IME-EFm1 exhibited a low similarity to other phages in terms of genome organization and structural protein amino acid sequences. The coding region corresponded to 90.7 % of the genome; 70 putative ORFs were deduced and, of these, 29 could be functionally identified based on their homology to previously characterized proteins. A predicted metallo-β-lactamase gene was detected in the genome sequence. The identification of an antibiotic resistance gene emphasizes the necessity for complete genome sequencing of a phage to ensure it is free of any undesirable genes before use as a therapeutic agent against bacterial pathogens., UL https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/jgv/10.1099/vir.0.067553-0