Capsule specificity underpins the biology and translational potential of <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> K16 phages

<p dir="ltr"><i>K</i><i>l</i><i>ebsi</i><i>e</i><i>lla pneumoniae</i> species complex (KPSC) is a major cause of bloodstream infections (BSIs) in sub-Saharan Africa, associated with outbreaks in neonatal intensive care units. Bacteriophages (phages) offer a promising alternative or adjunct therapy to antimicrobials and have received renewed research and policy attention. Prophages are abundant in KPSC populationsand can pose a problem to phage therapy through superinfection exclusion (SIE)or as vehicles for horizontal gene transfer through phage-prophage recombination. We investigated the genomes of eight QECH KPSC K16 strains for prophages and whether they carried any SIE systems, virulence or AMR genes. We further screened 1302 KPSC strains collected from QECH over the course of the 20-year longitudinal study for viral sequences. </p>