Interactions between Jumbo Phage SA1 and Staphylococcus: A Global Transcriptomic Analysis

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is an important zoonotic pathogen that poses a serious health concern to humans and cattle worldwide. Although it has been proven that lytic phages may successfully kill S. aureus, the interaction between the host and the phage has yet to be thoroughly investigated, which will likely limit the clinical application of phage. Here, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to examine the transcriptomics of jumbo phage SA1 and Staphylococcus JTB1-3 during a high multiplicity of infection (MOI) and RT-qPCR was used to confirm the results. The RNA-seq analysis revealed that phage SA1 took over the transcriptional resources of the host cells and that the genes were categorized as early, middle, and late, based on the expression levels during infection. A minor portion of the resources of the host was employed to enable phage replication after infection because only 35.73% (997/2790) of the host genes were identified as differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analyses showed that the phage infection mainly affected the nucleotide metabolism, protein metabolism, and energy-related metabolism of the host. Moreover, the expression of the host genes involved in anti-phage systems, virulence, and drug resistance significantly changed during infection. This research gives a fresh understanding of the relationship between jumbo phages and their Gram-positive bacteria hosts and provides a reference for studying phage treatment and antibiotics.