Foodborne Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) cause severe diarrhea and hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) in humans. However, traditional methods for STEC sterilization are difficult to apply to fresh food. To control the pathogen, phage infecting E. coli O157:H7 were isolated and characterized. The isolated phage vB_EcoM-ECP26 had an icosahedral head and a contractile tail, and was classified as belonging to the Myoviridae family. The phage showed a broad host range against STEC and exhibited a large burst size of 1914 PFU/cell. The phage was highly stable at high temperatures (65 °C) and wide ranges of pH (4–10). The genome of vB_EcoM-ECP26 consists of 136,993 nucleotides, 214 open reading frames, and does not contain lysogenicity-related genes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that vB_EcoM-ECP26 is a V5-like species. STEC O157 growth was inhibited by vB_EcoM-ECP26 for 8 h. Furthermore, this phage not only significantly decreased the STEC population (p < 0.05), but also persisted in fresh lettuce at 4 °C for 5 days. Therefore, these results reveal that the novel lytic phage vB_EcoM-ECP26 could be a useful agent for the control of foodborne STEC.

中文翻译：

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裂解噬菌体vB_EcoM-ECP26的特性和减少志贺毒素的生产大肠埃希氏菌的生产莴苣

食源性产生志贺毒素的大肠杆菌（STEC）在人中引起严重的腹泻和溶血性尿毒症综合征（HUS）。但是，STEC灭菌的传统方法很难应用于新鲜食品。为了控制病原体，分离并鉴定了感染大肠杆菌O157：H7的噬菌体。分离的噬菌体vB_EcoM-ECP26具有二十面体的头部和收缩的尾巴，并被分类为属于肌病毒科。噬菌体显示出针对STEC的广泛宿主范围，并具有1914 PFU /细胞的大爆发大小。噬菌体在高温（65°C）和宽范围的pH（4-10）下高度稳定。vB_EcoM-ECP26的基因组由136,993个核苷酸和214个开放阅读框组成，并且不包含与溶原性相关的基因。系统发育分析表明，vB_EcoM-ECP26是V5样物种。vB_EcoM-ECP26抑制STEC O157生长8小时。此外，该噬菌体不仅显着减少了STEC种群（p <0.05），而且还在4°C的新鲜生菜中持续5天。因此，这些结果表明，新型裂解噬菌体vB_EcoM-ECP26可能是控制食源性STEC的有用药物。