Antibacterial characteristics and mechanisms of ɛ-poly-lysine against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus

The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial characteristics and antibacterial mechanisms of ɛ-poly-lysine against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. The diameters of inhibition zones of E. coli (10 ± 0.5 mm) and S. aureus (12 ± 0.1 mm) treated by 200 μg/ml ɛ-poly-lysine were much larger than control (5 ± 0.3 mm) (p < 0.05). Minimum inhibition concentration of ɛ-poly-lysine against E. coli and S. aureus was 12.5 μg/ml. Scanning electron microscopy showed that ɛ-poly-lysine damaged the morphology of tested bacterial cells. The increase in electric conductivity of bacterial cells suspension indicated that the cytoplasmic membranes were broken by ɛ-poly-lysine, which caused leakage of ions in cells. SDS-PAGE of bacterial proteins demonstrated that ɛ-poly-lysine could damage bacterial cells through the destruction of cellular proteins. These results indicated that ɛ-poly-lysine has good potential to be as a natural food preservative.