Isolation and Characterization of Escherichia Coli O103 Phage and its Preliminary Application In Food

Abstract

Escherichia coli O103 is a widely distributed food-borne pathogen.In this study, a broad-spectrum bacteriophage named PO103 of E. coli O103 was isolated from sewage. Biological characteristics, genomics, and application effects of this phage were studied. it is remained active at 40℃-50℃ andpH4-11 . The optimal MOI was 0.01. its latency time was 10 min, and the burst time was 50 min. The phage PO103 genome contains 53,040 bp of double-stranded DNA with a GC content of 43.9%, and 40 open reading frames (ORFs) . In chicken skin, phage PO103 could reduce E. coli O103 by 0.92~1.32 log CFU/mL. In milk, E. coli O103 remained below the detection line for 3 to 9 h.  These findings highlight the ability of bacteriophage PO103 as a potential antimicrobial agent to control E. coli O103 in food samples.

Keywords: Escherichia coli, bacteriophage, Biological characteristic, Biocontrol