The prospect of creating farm animal probiotics based on genetically modified Escherichia coli strains

The increasing prevalence of antimicrobial resistant Enterobacteriaceae in poultry farm complexes is a serious problem, hence new treatment strategies and antimicrobial agents are searched for, among them probiotics. Genetically modified strains of Escherichia coli carrying conjugative plasmids with bacteriocin genes are a novel possibility of preventing and treating infections caused by antimicrobial resistant microorganisms. Two “kill”-“anti-kill” systems based on the bacteriocin colicin E7, a conjugative plasmid (pOX38 or R6K) and the E. coli Nissle 1917 strain were constructed and used in conjugation assays. In our assays, it was shown that direct delivery of the colicin E7 gene to the target bacterial cells via conjugation was efficient in killing the target cells. Based on the obtained results, it can be assumed that such systems have the prospect of being used as a new generation of probiotics and a possible alternative to antibiotics.