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    The absence or presence of a lytic coliphage affects the response of Escherichia coli to heat, chlorine, or UV exposure

    Ameh, E.M. and Tyrrel, S. and Harris, J. and Ignatiou, A. and Orlova, Elena and Nocker, A. (2018) The absence or presence of a lytic coliphage affects the response of Escherichia coli to heat, chlorine, or UV exposure. Folia Microbiologica 63 (5), pp. 599-606. ISSN 0015-5632.

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    Abstract

    Disinfection aims at maximal inactivation of target organisms and the sustainable suppression of their regrowth. Whereas many disinfection efforts achieve efficient inactivation when the effect is measured directly after treatment, there are questions about the sustainability of this effect. One aspect is that the treated bacteria might recover and regain the ability to grow. In an environmental context another question is how amenable surviving bacteria are to predation by omnipresent bacteriophages. Provisional data suggested that bacteria when subjected to sublethal heat stress might develop a phage-resistant phenotype. The result made us wonder about the susceptibility to phage-mediated lysis for bacteria exposed to a gradient of chlorine and UV-LED disinfection strengths. Whereas bacteria exposed to low sublethal chlorine doses still underwent phage-mediated lysis, the critical chlorine Ct of 0.5 mg min L-1 eliminated this susceptibility and induced phage resistance in the cells that survived treatment. In the case of UV, even the smallest tested dose of 2.8 mJ cm-2 abolished phage lysis leading to direct regrowth. Results suggest that there is a possibility that bacteria surviving disinfection might have higher environmental survival chances directly after treatment compared to non-treated cells. A reason could potentially lie in their compromised metabolism that is essential for phage replication.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Additional Information: The final publication is available at Springer via the link above.
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): disinfection, heat, chlorine, UV-LED, bacteriophages, phage resistance
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Natural Sciences
    Depositing User: Elena Orlova
    Date Deposited: 01 May 2018 10:41
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:41
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/22292

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