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Title: Smarter arrow now available in the food safety quiver

Author
item Callaway, Todd
item SHERIDAN, T - Emory University

Submitted to: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/16/2015
Publication Date: 10/6/2015
Citation: Callaway, T.R., Sheridan, T.G. 2015. Smarter arrow now available in the food safety quiver. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112:12230-12231.

Interpretive Summary: A new study has demonstrated that the antimicrobial proteins known as colicins can be produced in large quantities in recombinant plants. This opens the door to producing large amounts of colicins that can be used in foods or fed to animals during their growth phase to alter the microbial population of the foodstuff. Colicins have been effective in small scale studies in controlling Salmonella enterica spp., Listeria monocytogenes, and Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (e.g., O157:H7). Thus this new recombinant technology offers an avenue of developing a new weapon to reduce foodborne pathogens entering the food chain.

Technical Abstract: Despite the tremendous success in reducing foodborne illnesses over time and the resources that have been devoted to eliminating foodborne pathogens, too many foodborne illnesses still occur each year. In this issue of PNAS, Schulz et al., describes a method of controlling the critical foodborne pathogen Enterohemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC, such as the widely known E. coli O157:H7) using an antimicrobial protein (colicins) originally produced by non-pathogenic E. coli strains; but in this novel study the colicins were instead produced by plants. This advance in antimicrobial protein production and delivery finally makes colicins available in quantities sufficient to be used as a weapon specifically targeted at EHEC, but can also be used to reduce other foodborne pathogens in a variety of food production environments. Colicins, with a variety of modes of action, were successfully produced in this study, and as a result offer promise to not only pre-emptively combat the development of colicin resistance, but to allow application of colicins as a broad food treatment that is effective against more than one bacterial species simultaneously. This development also opens the door to allow production of colicins as targeted therapeutics for use in human and veterinary applications.