Inhibition of siderophore production in E. coli O157:H7 strain

Abstract

1. coli O157:H7 strain is a frequent source of foodborne infections and has been linked to a number of human illnesses, siderophores is important virulence factor for this bacterium used to take up the necessary iron from the environment. The current study aimed to inhibit the production of siderophore in the E. coli O157:H7strain using plants, natural materials and organic acids which may be used as anti-virulence drugs against these bacteria.

     The results showed the ability of the E .coli O157:H7 strain to produce siderophore, which was found to be a hydroxamate and catecholate type, Our PCR results shows that bacteria have two the genes entC and iucA genes which encoded enterobactin and aerobactin siderophores. In siderophore inhibition assays, sub-minimum inhibitory concentrations were used. Results showed that Rhus, Citric acid and Sinjar honey were inhibit siderophore production and also it was found that rhus affected the iucA gene, as the gene disappeared completely, but did not affect the entC gene and citric acid caused disappearance of the two genes, also it was found that Sinjar honey caused iucA gene disappearance, but did not affect the entC gene.

   Our results indicates the possibility of using Rhus, Citric acid and Sinjar honey as anti-virulence agents against this bacteria and future additional studies are required to find out the active compounds that led to the inhibition of serophore production .