Aminoglycoside antibiotics inhibit phage infection by blocking an early step of the phage infection cycle

Abstract

In response to viral predation, bacteria have evolved a wide range of defense mechanisms, which rely mostly on proteins acting at the cellular level. Here, we show that aminoglycosides, a well-known class of antibiotics produced by Streptomyces, are potent inhibitors of phage infection in widely divergent bacterial hosts. We demonstrate that aminoglycosides block an early step of the viral life cycle, prior to genome replication. Phage inhibition was also achieved using supernatants from natural aminoglycoside producers, hinting at a broad physiological significance of the antiviral properties of aminoglycosides. Strikingly, we show that acetylation of the aminoglycoside antibiotic apramycin abolishes its antibacterial effect, but retains its antiviral properties. Altogether, this study expands the knowledge of potential aminoglycoside functions in bacterial communities suggesting that aminoglycosides are not only used by their producers as toxic molecules against their bacterial competitors, but could also provide protection against the threat of phage predation at the community level.