Abstract
One of the human- and animal-pathogenic species in genus Yersinia is Yersinia enterocolitica, a food-borne zoonotic pathogen that causes enteric infections, mesenteric lymphadenitis, and sometimes sequelae such as reactive arthritis and erythema nodosum. Y. enterocolitica is able to proliferate at 4 °C, making it dangerous if contaminated food products are stored under refrigeration. The most common source of Y. enterocolitica is raw pork meat. Microbiological detection of the bacteria from food products is hampered by its slow growth rate as other bacteria overgrow it. Bacteriophages can be exploited in several ways to increase food safety with regards to contamination by Y. enterocolitica. For example, Yersinia phages could be useful in keeping the contamination of food products under control, or, alternatively, the specificity of the phages could be exploited in developing rapid and sensitive diagnostic tools for the identification of the bacteria in food products. In this review, we will discuss the present state of the research on these topics.
Highlights
The most numerous organisms on Earth are the viruses of bacteria, bacteriophages, that are present in 10-fold excess to bacteria, their host cells [1]
Further reports focused on the morphology and host range [23,24,25,26,27,28,29] interspersed with a more thorough characterization of several other Y. enterocolitica phages reporting on their genome sequence, proteome, morphology, host range, receptor specificity, and the identification of the receptor binding proteins (RBPs) involved in host recognition (Table 1)
With the exception of phage φ80-18 [35], which utilizes the O-specific Polysaccharide (O-PS) of Yersinia enterocolitica O:8 and O:7,8 and other strains that carry the O:8 moiety [35,45], all other Podoviruses that have been characterized, have been isolated using Y. enterocolitica O:3 strains as a host since it is the most predominant serotype involved in human yersiniosis
Summary
The most numerous organisms on Earth are the viruses of bacteria, bacteriophages (phages for short), that are present in 10-fold excess to bacteria, their host cells [1]. Phage research has, during the last ten years, seen a renaissance after several decades’ decline; the present interest focuses on genome and evolution research, on systems biology studies, and horizontal gene transfer. Phages themselves are excellent tools in bacterial genetics, and phage-derived enzymes are indispensable tools in molecular biology. As the world is facing the threat of increasing antibiotic resistance, phage therapy, the 100-year-old remedy of bacterial infections practiced in the former. Lytic phages have been preferred since, after replicating itself, the phage kills its host bacteria and does not disrupt the normal microbiota [4]. In addition to curing bacterial infections, phages can be used prophylactically to control bacterial pathogens in food production, having the benefit that phages do not damage the populations of beneficial bacteria present [5]
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