How Bacteria and Fungi Meet Their Match

The Power of Combination

Bacteriocins and essential oils are like a dynamic duo in the fight against harmful microbes. They have shown promise in working together to tackle tough pathogens. However, scientists are still trying to figure out exactly how they do this, especially when it comes to Gram-negative bacteria and fungi.

Enterocin Gr17 (ENT) and Cinnamaldehyde Essential Oil (CEO)

Enterocin Gr17 (ENT) is a new type of bacteriocin that has been found to work well with cinnamaldehyde essential oil (CEO) against some of these pathogens. Researchers wanted to understand better how ENT and CEO work together to fight against Escherichia coli and Candida albicans.

The Study

They looked at how these two substances affect:

The cell wall and membrane
The shape and structure of the cells
Metabolism
The genes involved in growth and virulence

The Results

The combination of ENT and CEO caused damage to both E. coli and C. albicans, but in different ways.

Against Escherichia coli

Disrupted cell wall structure
Messed up the membrane potential
Targeted cell wall components
Made the cell membrane more permeable
Created pores that let important stuff like potassium ions and ATP leak out
Led to severe damage to the cell's shape and internal organization
Messed up the hexose monophosphate respiratory pathway
Turned down the expression of genes related to growth and virulence
Speeding up cell death

Against Candida albicans

Didn't change the shape much
Messed up its internal organization
Destabilized the membrane potential
Messed up the cell wall homeostasis
Made it easier for them to get inside the cell
Disrupted the cell membrane's permeability and integrity
Messed up energy metabolism by inhibiting the tricarboxylic acid cycle pathway
Turned down the expression of growth and virulence-related genes
Leading to cell death

Conclusion

This study gives a good foundation for using bacteriocin-essential oil combinations in industrial applications to fight against harmful microbes.