Biocontrol and Rapid Detection of Food-Borne Pathogens Using Bacteriophages and Endolysins

Abstract

Bacteriophages have been suggested as natural food preservatives as well as rapid detection materials for food-borne pathogens in various foods. Since Listeria monocytogenes-targeting phage cocktail (ListShield) was approved for applications in foods, numerous phages have been screened and experimentally characterized for phage applications in foods. A single phage and phage cocktail treatments to various foods contaminated with food-borne pathogens including E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica, Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Cronobacter sakazakii, and Vibrio spp. revealed that they have great potential to control various food-borne pathogens and may be alternative for conventional food preservatives. In addition, phage-derived endolysins with high host specificity and host lysis activities may be preferred to food applications rather than phages. For rapid detection of food-borne pathogens, cell-wall binding domains (CBDs) from endolysins have been suggested due to their high host-specific binding. Fluorescence-tagged CBDs have been successfully evaluated and suggested to be alternative materials of expensive antibodies for various detection applications. Most recently, reporter phage systems have been developed and tested to confirm their usability and accuracy for specific detection. These systems revealed some advantages like rapid detection of only viable pathogenic cells without interference by food components in a very short reaction time, suggesting that these systems may be suitable for monitoring of pathogens in foods. Consequently, phage is the next-generation biocontrol agent as well as rapid detection tool to confirm and even identify the food-borne pathogens present in various foods.

Biofilms Formed by Pathogens in Food and Food Processing Environments

“…They use the genetic machinery of their host cells to replicate, killing bacteria when reaching a sufficiently high number to produce lysis [92]. They are abundantly encountered anywhere host bacteria live [93] and, therefore, their potential is presently harnessed as natural antimicrobial agents to control pathogenic bacteria in food products and food-related environments [94]. One of the bacteriophages' applications that is intensively explored targets biofilm-forming bacteria that are relevant for food industry, including L. monocytogenes, S. aureus, E. coli, B. cereus, and S. enterica.…”

Modeling the Behavior of Listeria monocytogenes in Meat

“…Bacteriophages harmless to human cells are considered natural biocontrol agents against foodborne pathogens [47]. Bacteriophages are bacterial viruses with host specificity and lysis activities and can be used as preservatives or for pathogens rapid detection [48].…”

Bacteriophages: Practical Applications for Nature's Biocontrol

“…Another approach explored the potential of phage endolysins (peptidoglycan hydrolases), where 'phage lysins' have been the focus of research into combatting planktonic (free floating) and sessile (anchored) microorganisms that form biofilms (Sass and Bierbaum 2007;Son et al 2010;Gutiérrez et al 2014;Bai et al 2016;. Biofilms are collections of microorganisms and the extracellular polymers they secrete, attach to either inert or living substrata.…”

“…The phage-derived endolysins with high host specificity and host lysis activities has been used for rapid detection of food-borne pathogens (Bai et al 2016). 3.…”