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The Role of Ovotransferrin in Egg-White Antimicrobial Activity: A Review.

ABSTRACT: Eggs are a whole food which affordably support human nutritional requirements worldwide. Eggs strongly resist bacterial infection due to an arsenal of defensive systems, many of which reside in the egg white. However, despite improved control of egg production and distribution, eggs remain a vehicle for foodborne transmission of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, which continues to represent a major public health challenge. It is generally accepted that iron deficiency, mediated by the iron-chelating properties of the egg-white protein ovotransferrin, has a key role in inhibiting infection of eggs by Salmonella. Ovotransferrin has an additional antibacterial activity beyond iron-chelation, which appears to depend on direct interaction with the bacterial cell surface, resulting in membrane perturbation. Current understanding of the antibacterial role of ovotransferrin is limited by a failure to fully consider its activity within the natural context of the egg white, where a series relevant environmental factors (such as alkalinity, high viscosity, ionic composition, and egg white protein interactions) may exert significant influence on ovotransferrin activity. This review provides an overview of what is known and what remains to be determined regarding the antimicrobial activity of ovotransferrin in egg white, and thus enhances understanding of egg safety through improved insight of this key antimicrobial component of eggs.

SUBMITTER: Legros J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8070150 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis is noted for its ability to survive the harsh antibacterial activity of egg white which is presumed to explain its occurrence as the major food-borne pathogen associated with the consumption of eggs and egg products. Liquid egg white is a major ingredient for the food industry but, because of its thermal fragility, pasteurization is performed at the modest temperature of 57°C (for 2-6 min). Unfortunately, such treatment does not lead to sufficient reduction in S. Enteritidis contamination, which is a clear health concern when the product is consumed without cooking. However, egg white is able to limit S. Enteritidis growth due to its alkaline pH, iron deficiency and multiple antimicrobial proteins. This anti-Salmonella activity of egg white is temperature dependent and becomes bactericidal once the incubation temperature exceeds 42°C. This property is exploited in the highly promising pasteurization treatment (42-45°C for 1-5 days) which achieves complete killing of S. Enteritidis. However, the precise mechanism and the role of the egg-white proteins are not fully understood. Here, the impact of exposure of S. Enteritidis to egg white-based media, with or without egg-white proteins (>10 kDa), under bactericidal conditions (45°C) was explored by measuring survival and global expression. Surprisingly, the bactericidal activity of egg white at 45°C was only slightly affected by egg-white proteins indicating that they play a minor role in the bactericidal activity observed. Moreover, egg-white proteins had minimal impact on the global-gene-expression response to egg white such that very similar, major regulatory responses (20% genes affected) were observed both with and without egg-white proteins following incubation for 45 min at 45°C. Egg-white proteins caused a significant change in expression for just 64 genes, including the psp and lysozyme-inhibitor responses genes which is suggestive of an early membrane perturbation effect. Such damage was supported by disruption of the proton motive force by egg-white proteins. In summary, the results suggest that low-mass components of egg white are largely responsible for the bactericidal activity of egg white at 45°C.

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The Role of Ovotransferrin in Egg-White Antimicrobial Activity: A Review.

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