The food application of a novel Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophage vB_SA_STAP152 and its endolysin LysP152 with high enzymatic activity under cold temperature

• Published in: Food microbiology 2025-06, Vol.128, p.104710, Article 104710
• Main Authors: Li, Yuanyu, Dai, Jingsha, Wu, Shi, Rong, Dongli, Huang, Jiahui, Zhao, Miao, Zhang, Jumei, Ye, Qinghua, Gu, Qihui, Zhang, Youxiong, Wei, Xianhu, Wu, Qingping
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bacteriophage; Biocontrol; Endolysin; Food security; Meat; Staphylococcus aureus
• ISSN: 0740-0020
• DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2024.104710

Staphylococcus aureus, a foodborne bacterial pathogen, poses a serious challenge due to antibiotic resistance, highlighting the urgent need for effective and alternative antimicrobial agents. Undoubtedly, bacteriophages and bacteriophage-encoded antibacterial proteins have been considered effective biopreservatives. Herein, we report the isolation and characterization of a novel lytic bacteriophage, vB_SA_STAP152, along with its endolysin LysP152. Morphological and genomic analysis revealed that vB_SA_STAP152 could be considered as a new species in the Rosenblumvirus genus. Stability tests demonstrated that vB_SA_STAP152 can withstand a range of temperatures (∼65 °C) and pH values (4–11). Moreover, we successfully cloned and expressed the bacteriophage-encoded protein, endolysin LysP152, which exhibited optimal activity at temperatures between 4 and 35 °C and within a broad pH range (4–11). The antibacterial spectrum experiments revealed that phage vB_SA_STAP152 effectively targeted 76.15% of S. aureus strains across 14 different sequence types (STs), particularly including community-associated methicillin-resistant S. aureus (CA-MRSA) ST59. Furthermore, endolysin LysP152 demonstrated complete lysis all tested S. aureus strains spanning 17 STs. Subsequently, the efficacy of vB_SA_STAP152 and LysP152 against MRSA in pork was evaluated, revealing a significant reduction of bacterial counts by 4.27–4.42 log10 CFU/mL with phage vB_SA_STAP152 at room temperature and by 3.31 log10 CFU/mL with endolysin LysP152 at refrigerator temperature. Overall, the in-vitro studies and favorable physical and chemical properties suggested that phage vB_SA_STAP152 and endolysin LysP152 have the potential to be developed as antimicrobial agents against S. aureus in the food industry. •A lytic phage vB_SA_STAP152 infecting foodborne multidrug-resistant S. aureus was isolated.•Phage vB_SA_STAP152 has broad host range of S. aureus with 14 kinds of STs.•The endolysin LysP152 of phage vB_SA_STAP152 was successfully cloned and expressed.•The endolysin LysP152 has high activity to S. aureus under cold temperature.•vB_SA_STAP152 and its endolysin are highly effective against S. aureus in food.