Antibacterial activity and mode of action of ε-polylysine against Escherichia coli O157:H7.

CONCLUSION: The present study investigated the antimicrobial mechanism of ε-PL by measuring the content of cytoplasmic β-galactosidase, proteins and DNA. In addition, SEM and TEM were carried out to assess the mechanism. These results show that ε-PL has the ability to decrease the content of large molecules, cellular soluble proteins and nucleic acids associated with increasing the content of cytoplasmic β-galactosidase in supernatant by causing damage to the cell membranes. Consequently, the use of ε-PL as a natural antimicrobial agent should eventually become an appealing method in the field of food preservation.
PMID: 29633934 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Source: Journal of Medical Microbiology - April 10, 2018 Category: Microbiology Authors: Zhang X, Shi C, Liu Z, Pan F, Meng R, Bu X, Xing H, Deng Y, Guo N, Yu L Tags: J Med Microbiol Source Type: research