Department of Food Science and Engineering, ELTEC College of Engineering, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Republic of Korea.
Department of Food and Nutrition, BK21 FOUR, College of Human Ecology, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea.
Food Res Int. 2021 Dec;150(Pt A):110779. doi: 10.1016/j.foodres.2021.110779. Epub 2021 Oct 21.
The opportunistic pathogen V. parahaemolyticus is a major causative agent for seafood-borne illness worldwide. It also causes severe vibriosis in aquaculture animals, affecting seafood production with huge economic loss. These issues are getting worse due to the current global warming in oceans, spread of antibiotic resistance, and changes in consumer preference toward ready-to-eat (RTE) food items including seafood. To answer the urgent need for sustainable biocontrol agents against V. parahaemolyticus, we isolated and characterized a novel lytic bacteriophage VPT02 from market oyster. VPT02 lysed antibiotic resistant V. parahaemolyticus strains including FORC_023. Moreover, it exhibited notable properties as a biocontrol agent suitable for seafood-related settings, like short eclipse/latent periods, high burst size, broad thermal and pH stability, and no toxin/antibiotic resistance genes in the genome. Further comparative genomic analysis with the previously reported homologue phage pVp-1 revealed that VPT02 additionally possesses genes related to the nucleotide scavenging pathway, presumably enabling the phage to propagate quickly. Consistent with its strong in vitro bacteriolytic activity, treatment of only a small quantity of VPT02 (multiplicity of infection of 10) significantly increased the survival rate of V. parahaemolyticus-infected brine shrimp (from 16.7% to 46.7%). When applied to RTE raw fish flesh slices, the same quantity of VPT02 achieved up to 3.9 log reduction of spiked V. parahaemolyticus compared with the phage untreated control. Taken together, these results suggest that VPT02 may be a sustainable anti-V. parahaemolyticus agent useful in seafood-related settings including for RTE items.
机会性病原体副溶血性弧菌是全球食源性疾病的主要病原体。它还会导致水产养殖动物发生严重的弧菌病，给海鲜生产造成巨大的经济损失。由于当前海洋的全球变暖、抗生素耐药性的传播以及消费者对包括海鲜在内的即食 (RTE) 食品的偏好发生变化，这些问题变得更加严重。为了应对对抗副溶血性弧菌的可持续生物控制剂的迫切需求，我们从市场牡蛎中分离并鉴定了一种新型裂解噬菌体 VPT02。VPT02 可裂解包括 FORC_023 在内的抗生素耐药性副溶血性弧菌菌株。此外，它表现出作为一种适合海鲜相关环境的生物控制剂的显著特性，例如短潜伏期/潜伏期、高爆发量、宽热和 pH 稳定性，以及基因组中没有毒素/抗生素耐药性基因。与之前报道的同源噬菌体 pVp-1 的比较基因组分析表明，VPT02 还额外具有与核苷酸清除途径相关的基因，推测这使噬菌体能够快速繁殖。与体外强烈的溶菌活性一致，仅处理少量 VPT02（感染复数为 10）就可显著提高副溶血性弧菌感染盐水虾的存活率（从 16.7%增加到 46.7%）。当应用于 RTE 生鱼片时，与未经噬菌体处理的对照组相比，相同数量的 VPT02 可使副溶血性弧菌的污染量减少多达 3.9 个对数。综上所述，这些结果表明 VPT02 可能是一种可持续的抗副溶血性弧菌剂，可用于包括 RTE 制品在内的海鲜相关环境。
