This review highlights recent findings on the evolutionary arms race between the causative agent of cholera Vibrio cholerae and virulent bacteriophages (phages) ICP1, ICP2, and ICP3 isolated from cholera patient stool samples.
Remarkably, we found that all PLEs (regardless of geographic or temporal origin) respond to infection by a myovirus called ICP1, the most prominent V. cholerae phage found in cholera patient stool samples from Bangladesh.
The ubiquitous presence of ICP1 in cholera patients and the finding that the O1 antigen of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) serves as the ICP1 receptor suggest that ICP1 is extremely well adapted to predation of human-pathogenic V. cholerae O1.