ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

Sec. Antibiotic Resistance and New Antimicrobial drugs

Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2025.1563781

This article is part of the Research TopicAdvances in Bacteriophage Research & Development with Therapeutic ApplicationsView all 4 articles

Genomic Analysis of Prophages in 44 Clinical Strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolated in Saudi Arabia

Provisionally accepted
Ahlam AlsaadiAhlam Alsaadi1*Abdulrahman A. AlghamdiAbdulrahman A. Alghamdi1Mohammed ImamMohammed Imam2Safia AljedaniSafia Aljedani3Amal AlsariAmal Alsari3Haya AljameHaya Aljame3Mohammad BosaeedMohammad Bosaeed3,4
  • 1King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 2Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Qunfudah College of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Al-Qunfudah, Makkah, Saudi Arabia
  • 3King Abdullah International Medical Research Center; King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences,, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 4Department of Medicine, King Abdulaziz Medical City, Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs., Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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Prophages are bacteriophages that integrate their genomes into the bacterial chromosome. This research aimed to analyze and characterize prophages integrated into 44 Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains isolated from tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia. A total of 97 intact prophages were identified among clinical strains, with 16 prophages found present in more than one strain simultaneously. All prophages were found to have lengths ranging from 7.7 kb to 74.1 kb, and their GC content was found to be between 49.91% and 64.9%.Our findings show that prophages are present in the majority of the isolated P. aeruginosa strains (41 out of 44). Additionally, several proteins related to viral defense (toxin/antitoxin modules and proteins against restriction-modification enzymes) were identified, supporting the idea that prophages influence bacterial pathogenesis and anti-phage defenses.

Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Prophages, multi-drug resistance, Bacteriophages, Saudi Arabia

Received: 20 Jan 2025; Accepted: 27 Mar 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Alsaadi, Alghamdi, Imam, Aljedani, Alsari, Aljame and Bosaeed. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Ahlam Alsaadi, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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