Abstract
Among food preservation methods, bacteriophage treatment can be a viable alternative method to overcome the drawbacks of traditional approaches. Bacteriophages are naturally occurring viruses that are highly specific to their hosts and have the capability to lyse bacterial cells, making them useful as biopreservation agents. This study aims to characterize and determine the application of bacteriophage isolated from Indonesian traditional Ready-to-Eat (RTE) food to control Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) population in various foods. Phage DW-EC isolated from Indonesian traditional RTE food called dawet with ETEC as its host showed a positive result by the formation of plaques (clear zone) in the bacterial host lawn. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results also showed that DW-EC can be suspected to belong to the Myoviridae family. Molecular characterization and bioinformatic analysis showed that DW-EC exhibited characteristics as promising biocontrol agents in food samples. Genes related to the lytic cycle, such as lysozyme and tail fiber assembly protein, were annotated. There were also no signs of lysogenic genes among the annotation results. The resulting PHACTS data also indicated that DW-EC was leaning toward being exclusively lytic. DW-EC significantly reduced the ETEC population (P ≤ 0.05) in various food samples after two different incubation times (1 day and 6 days) in chicken meat (80.93%; 87.29%), fish meat (63.78%; 87.89%), cucumber (61.42%; 71.88%), tomato (56.24%; 74.51%), and lettuce (46.88%; 43.38%).
Highlights
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is one of the most prevalent foodborne pathogens that causes diarrhea and can persist in a wide variety of food-related environments due to its ability to attach, colonize, and form biofilms on these surfaces[1,2]
Several bacteriophages have been applied as food preservatives and categorized as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); this method is considered promising for application as a biopreservative for preventing foodborne p athogens[6]
Was isolated from Indonesian traditional Ready-to-Eat (RTE) food called dawet. It showed a positive result for ETEC as host bacteria, which was indicated by the plaque formed in the agar overlay assay
Summary
Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) is one of the most prevalent foodborne pathogens that causes diarrhea and can persist in a wide variety of food-related environments due to its ability to attach, colonize, and form biofilms on these surfaces[1,2]. Lytic bacteriophages are frequently used for inactivation and control of foodborne pathogens[6]. Several bacteriophages have been applied as food preservatives and categorized as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); this method is considered promising for application as a biopreservative for preventing foodborne p athogens[6]. The objectives of this research were to isolate bacteriophages, characterize, determine the application of several foods to control ETEC and analyze the genotype properties of bacteriophage DW-EC
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