A novel Hafnia-specific bacteriophage is capable of transduction of ampicillin resistance between bacterial species

Abstract

A bacteriophage isolated for its ability to infect the Gram-negative and ampicillin-sensitive bacterium Hafnia alvei was also able to infect a strain of ampicillin-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. An apparatus was designed to allow cultures of the two bacterial species to be separated by a 0.2-μm filter. A phage-infected culture of K. pneumoniae was grown next to an uninfected H. alvei culture. Following incubation, samples from the H. alvei culture were plated on nonselective media (nutrient agar), and plated colonies were then replica plated to ampicillin-containing media. Several ampicillin-resistant colonies of H. alvei were identified. Of the potential methods for horizontal gene transfer (transformation, transduction, and conjugation), only viral transduction of antibiotic resistance is supported.