As bacteriophages are revisited as therapy for drug-resistant bacterial infections, the significance of characterizing phages with therapeutic potential grows. Podophage Petty infects strains of both Acinetobacter baumannii and Acinetobacter nosocomialis, important human pathogens notorious for resistance to multiple antibiotics. Hernandez-Morales et al. (e01064-17) found that Petty encodes a depolymerase, which modulates bacterial capsular exopolysaccharides required for infection and biofilm formation. Petty lacks the spanins used by most phages of Gram-negative hosts to disrupt the outer membrane during lysis, suggesting alternative lysis mechanisms. This published work was among the articles of significant interest selected from that issue by the editors.
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