Characteristics for phage-encoded cell wall hydrolase of LysSAP27 to reduce staphylococcal food poisoning

Do-Won Park; Young-Duck Lee; Jong-Hyun Park

doi:10.1007/s10068-021-00910-2

Characteristics for phage-encoded cell wall hydrolase of LysSAP27 to reduce staphylococcal food poisoning

Food Sci Biotechnol. 2021 May 11;30(5):745-753. doi: 10.1007/s10068-021-00910-2. eCollection 2021 May.

Authors

Do-Won Park¹, Young-Duck Lee², Jong-Hyun Park¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, College of Bionano Technology, Gachon University, Seongnam, 13120 Republic of Korea.
² Department of Food Science and Engineering, Seowon University, Cheongju, 28674 Republic of Korea.

Abstract

To reduce staphylococcal food poisoning (SFP), a phage-encoded cell wall hydrolase called endolysin has emerged as an attractive antibacterial agent. In this study, the Staphylococcus aureus infecting phage vB_SauS-SAP27 (ϕSAP27) was isolated from sewage and characterized morphologically and genetically. ϕSAP27 was identified as Siphoviridae temperate phage, with a genome of 43 kbp. A ϕSAP27 endolysin named LysSAP27 was produced recombinantly in Escherichia coli. LysSAP27 exhibited the highest activity at neutral pH and a temperature of 30 °C, and its lytic activity was upregulated by calcium ions. Following optimization of the enzymatic conditions, LysSAP27 was applied to S. aureus-contaminated milk. Treatment with 2 μM LysSAP27 led to a significant bactericidal effect, corresponding to a reduction in bacterial titer by 2.8 log CFU/mL within 1 h and 3.4 log CFU/mL within 2 h. Therefore, LysSAP27 could be used as an effective antimicrobial agent to prevent SFP in food.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10068-021-00910-2.

Keywords: Bacteriophage; Endolysin; Food Poisoning; Staphylococcus aureus.