Amid the escalating challenges of antibiotic resistance, bacterial infections have emerged as a global threat. Bacteriophages (phages), viral entities capable of selectively infecting bacteria, are gaining momentum as promising alternatives to traditional antibiotics. Their distinctive attributes, including host specificity, inherent self-amplification, and potential synergy with antibiotics, render them compelling candidates. Phage engineering, a burgeoning discipline, involves the strategic modification of bacteriophages to enhance their therapeutic potential and broaden their applications. The integration of CRISPR-Cas systems facilitates precise genetic modifications, enabling phages to serve as carriers of functional genes/proteins, thereby enhancing diagnostics, drug delivery, and therapy. Phage engineering holds promise in transforming precision medicine, addressing antibiotic resistance, and advancing diverse applications. Emphasizing the profound therapeutic potential of phages, this review underscores their pivotal role in combatting bacterial diseases and highlights their significance in the post-antibiotic era.

Pseudomonas species are one of the most prevalent bacterial species globally distributed in forest soil, river water, and human or animal skin. Some species are pathogens or opportunistic pathogens in hospitalized patients, animals, and plants. Various Pseudomonas species, including Pseudomonas putida, P. plecoglossicida, P. aeruginosa, and P. fluorescens, are known fish pathogens; P. fluorescens and P. putida cause severe losses in rainbow trout farming. Therefore, we investigated and isolated the pathogen that is responsible for mortality in a rainbow trout farm in Korea. The isolated bacterium was a strain of P. tructae, which was recently classified in the P. putida group. We performed taxonomical analysis of the bacteria in our previous study. In this study, we investigated the pathogenicity and clinical symptoms of P. tructae and analyzed its genomic characteristics. The pathogenicity of the strain was tested via challenge experiments in healthy rainbow trout and histopathologic analysis of the infected fish. Genome sequence was analyzed to identify the bacterial genes that are involved in antibiotic resistance and virulence. This is the first study reporting P. tructae as an emerging pathogen that is responsible for mortality in rainbow trout fisheries and providing the genome sequence of P. tructae.

Vibrio coralliilyticus (V. coralliilyticus) is a pathogen that causes mass mortality in marine bivalve hatcheries worldwide. In this study, we used a bacteriophage (phage) cocktail to prevent multiple-antibiotic-resistant (MAR) and phage-resistant (PR) V. coralliilyticus infection in Pacific oyster (Crassostreagigas) larvae. To prevent the occurrence of phage-resistant strains and decrease the effect of mono-phage treatment, we prepared a phage cocktail containing three types of V. coralliilyticus-specific phages and tested its prophylactic efficacy against MAR and PR V. coralliilyticus infection. The results of the cell lysis test showed that the phage cocktail showed an excellent bactericidal effect against the MAR and PR variants in contrast to the experimental group treated with two mono phages (pVco-5 and pVco-7). An in vivo test using Pacific oyster larvae also confirmed the preventive effect against MAR and PR variants. In conclusion, the application of the phage cocktail effectively prevented V. coralliilyticus infection in marine bivalve seedling production. Furthermore, it is expected to reduce damage to the aquaculture industry caused by the occurrence of MAR and PR V. coralliilyticus. Therefore, phage cocktails may be used for the control of various bacterial diseases.

Recently, there has been an increasing number of blight disease reports associated with Erwinia amylovora and Erwinia pyrifoliae in South Korea. Current management protocols that have been conducted with antibiotics have faced resistance problems and the outbreak has not decreased. Because of this concern, the present study aimed to provide an alternative method to control the invasive fire blight outbreak in the nation using bacteriophages (phages) in combination with an antibiotic agent (kasugamycin). Among 54 phage isolates, we selected five phages, pEa_SNUABM_27, 31, 32, 47, and 48, based on their bacteriolytic efficacy. Although only phage pEa_SNUABM_27 showed host specificity for E. amylovora, all five phages presented complementary lytic potential that improved the host infectivity coverage of each phage All the phages in the cocktail solution could lyse phage-resistant strains. These strains had a decreased tolerance to the antibiotic kasugamycin, and a synergistic effect of phages and antibiotics was demonstrated both in vitro and on immature wound-infected apples. It is noteworthy that the antibacterial effect of the phage cocktail or phage cocktail-sub-minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) of kasugamycin was significantly higher than the kasugamycin at the MIC. The selected phages were experimentally stable under environmental factors such as thermal or pH stress. Genomic analysis revealed these are novel Erwinia-infecting phages, and did not encode antibiotic-, virulence-, or lysogenic phage-related genes. In conclusion, we suggest the potential of the phage cocktail and kasugamycin combination as an effective strategy that would minimize the use of antibiotics, which are being excessively used in order to control fire blight pathogens.

Jumbo phages, which have a genome size of more than 200 kb, have recently been reported for the first time. However, limited information is available regarding their characteristics because few jumbo phages have been isolated. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to isolate and characterize other jumbo phages. We performed comparative genomic analysis of three Erwinia phages (pEa_SNUABM_12, pEa_SNUABM_47, and pEa_SNUABM_50), each of which had a genome size of approximately 360 kb (32.5% GC content). These phages were predicted to harbor 546, 540, and 540 open reading frames with 32, 34, and 35 tRNAs, respectively. Almost all of the genes in these phages could not be functionally annotated but showed high sequence similarity with genes encoded in Serratia phage BF, a member of Eneladusvirus. The detailed comparative and phylogenetic analyses presented in this study contribute to our understanding of the diversity and evolution of Erwinia phage and the genus Eneladusvirus.

Staphylococcal infections are extensively investigated in humans owing to the resistance of staphylococci to diverse antibiotics commonly used in hospitals. The resistance mechanism of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has garnered the interest of researchers due to its risk to the global public health. Furthermore, the zoonotic potential of staphylococci has led to increased interest in their transmission mechanism via food, livestock, as well as domestic and wild animals. Although fish are globally consumed, there are only few studies on the potential threat of staphylococcal infection in aquatic animals. In this study, we present the first description of Staphylococcus xylosus infection and its pathogenicity in rainbow trout, which resulted in fish mortality and economic losses in trout fisheries. We focused on the pathogenic role of the bacterium and its influence on rainbow trout based on the clinical symptoms in the eyes. Staphylococcus xylosus infection induced exophthalmia and disrupted the primary immune barrier, which increased the possibility of other secondary bacterial infections in fish under poor conditions, resulting in continuous mortality.