Isolation and Characterization of Bacteriophage in Controlling Escherichia coli in Jember Area, Indonesia

Abstract

Escherichia coli contributes to the contamination of horticultural products,the prevention of that bacterial contamination can be carried out using bacteriophage. This research is aimed to determine the characteristics of bacteriophages and their interactions with host bacteria. Characteristics of isolated Escherichia coli, morphology of bacteriophages capable of Escherichia coli infection and host range of that particular bacteriophage were observed. The result revealed that all the bacteriophages obtained namely IGKR1a, IGKR1b, IGKR2, IGPT1a, IGPT1b and IGMJ1b belong to the group of Myoviridae. Isolated Escherichia coli namely KR, KP, MJ, PR and PT were used as host bacteria. The host range test showed that all bacteriophages could infect KR, KP and MJ bacteria. Bacteriophage characteristics can be seen from the protein profile. The six bacteriophages had similar protein profile and bands size. The thick bands formed on SDS gel showed the bands of the major proteins and the thin ones were minor proteins.