<p class="title">Researchers have discovered viruses that infect bacteria living in the kitchen sponges which may prove useful in fighting 'superbugs' that cannot be killed by antibiotics alone.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A kitchen sponge is exposed to all kinds of different microbes, which form a vast microbiome of bacteria, said researchers from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in the US.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Bacteriophages are the most abundant biological particles on the planet and are typically found wherever bacteria reside. With this understanding, kitchen sponges seemed a likely place to find them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The researchers isolated bacteria from their own used kitchen sponges and then used the bacteria as bait to find the phages that could attack it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Two student researchers successfully discovered phages that infect bacteria living in their kitchen sponges.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Our study illustrates the value in searching any microbial environment that could harbour potentially useful phages," said Brianna Weiss, a Life Sciences student at NYIT.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The researchers decided to "swap" these two phages and see if they could cross-infect the other person's isolated bacteria. Consequently, the phages did kill the other's bacteria.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This led us to wonder if the bacteria strains were coincidentally the same, even though they came from two different sponges," said Weiss.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The researchers compared the DNA of both isolated strains of bacteria and discovered that they were both members of the Enterobacteriaceae family.</p>.<p class="bodytext">These bacteria belong to a rod-shaped group of microbes commonly found in faeces, where some cause infections in hospital settings.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Although the strains are closely related, when performing biochemical testing they found chemical variations between them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"These differences are important in understanding the range of bacteria that a phage can infect, which is also key to determining its ability to treat specific antibiotic-resistant infections," said Weiss.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Continuing our work, we hope to isolate and characterise more phages that can infect bacteria from a variety of microbial ecosystems, where some of these phages might be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections," Weiss said. </p>
<p class="title">Researchers have discovered viruses that infect bacteria living in the kitchen sponges which may prove useful in fighting 'superbugs' that cannot be killed by antibiotics alone.</p>.<p class="bodytext">A kitchen sponge is exposed to all kinds of different microbes, which form a vast microbiome of bacteria, said researchers from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT) in the US.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Bacteriophages are the most abundant biological particles on the planet and are typically found wherever bacteria reside. With this understanding, kitchen sponges seemed a likely place to find them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The researchers isolated bacteria from their own used kitchen sponges and then used the bacteria as bait to find the phages that could attack it.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Two student researchers successfully discovered phages that infect bacteria living in their kitchen sponges.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Our study illustrates the value in searching any microbial environment that could harbour potentially useful phages," said Brianna Weiss, a Life Sciences student at NYIT.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The researchers decided to "swap" these two phages and see if they could cross-infect the other person's isolated bacteria. Consequently, the phages did kill the other's bacteria.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"This led us to wonder if the bacteria strains were coincidentally the same, even though they came from two different sponges," said Weiss.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The researchers compared the DNA of both isolated strains of bacteria and discovered that they were both members of the Enterobacteriaceae family.</p>.<p class="bodytext">These bacteria belong to a rod-shaped group of microbes commonly found in faeces, where some cause infections in hospital settings.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Although the strains are closely related, when performing biochemical testing they found chemical variations between them.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"These differences are important in understanding the range of bacteria that a phage can infect, which is also key to determining its ability to treat specific antibiotic-resistant infections," said Weiss.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"Continuing our work, we hope to isolate and characterise more phages that can infect bacteria from a variety of microbial ecosystems, where some of these phages might be used to treat antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections," Weiss said. </p>