Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous coordination materials composed of multidentate organic ligands and metal ions or metal clusters. MOFs have the great potential to be utilized in antibacterial materials for biological, environmental, and food antimicrobial fields. In recent years, MOFs have been applied to various antibacterial fields due to their sustained release capability, porosity, and structural flexibility in combination with many chemicals and/or materials (such as nanoparticles, antibiotics, phytochemicals, and polymers). This review offers a detailed summary of the antibacterial applications of MOFs and their composites, focusing on the combination types of MOFs composites and the antibacterial effect in different applications. These applications are illustrated by the examples discussed in this review.

Root-knot nematodes (RKNs), Meloidogyne spp., are sedentary endoparasites that negatively affect almost every crop in the world. Current management practices are not enough to completely control RKN. Application of certain chemicals is also being further limited in recent years. It is therefore crucial to develop additional control strategies through the application of environmentally benign methods. There has been much research performed around the world on the topic, leading to useful outcomes and interesting findings capable of improving farmers’ income. It is important to have dependable resources gathering the data produced to facilitate future research. This review discusses recent findings on the application of environmentally benign treatments to control RKN between 2015 and April 2020. A variety of biological control strategies, natural compounds, soil amendments and other emerging strategies have been included, among which, many showed promising results in RKN control in vitro and/or in vivo . Development of these methods continues to be an area of active research, and new information on their efficacy will continuously become available. We have discussed some of the control mechanisms involved and suggestions were given on maximizing the outcome of the future efforts.

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Wheat flour has been associated with outbreaks of enterohemorrhagic (EHEC), but little is known on EHEC's survival during storage and thermal processing. The objective of this study was to determine long-term viability and thermal inactivation kinetics of EHEC serogroups O26, O103, O111, and O157. Wheat flour samples were inoculated with a cocktail of five strains of a single serogroup and stored at 23 and 35°C. Inoculated samples were heated at 55, 60, 65, and 70°C. Viability was determined by plate counting. Decimal reduction time () and first decimal reduction time (δ) values were calculated with log-linear and Weibull models, respectively. At 23°C, EHEC counts declined gradually for 84 days and samples tested positive from 84 to 280 days. The thermal resistance ( and δ) values ranged from 7.5 to 8.2 and 3.1 to 5.3 days, respectively, but there were no significant differences among serogroups ( ≤ 0.05). At 35°C, no EHEC was quantifiable by day 7 and no positive samples were detected after 49 days. Heating at 55 and 65°C resulted in δ-value ranges of 15.6 to 39.7 min and 3.0 to 3.9 min, respectively, with no significant difference among serogroups either. Z values were 12.6, 6.7, 10.2, and 13.4°C for O26, O103, O111, and O157, respectively. Thermal death kinetics of EHEC in flour were better described using the Weibull model. Survival and inactivation rates of four serogroups were remarkably similar. These findings indicated that all EHEC serovars tested remained viable for at least 9 months at room temperature and survived for up to 60 min at 70°C in wheat flour. Enterohemorrhagic (EHEC) and have recently caused several gastroenteritis outbreaks and recalls of wheat flour. Because EHEC can cause illness with very low doses and there is very scarce information regarding their ability to survive storage and heating in flour, the present study was undertaken to assess the long-term survival of EHEC serogroups O26, O103, O111, and O157 in flour. These findings are relevant, as we report that EHEC can survive for more than 9 months in wheat flour during storage. In addition, results obtained suggest that thermal inactivation at 65°C for 30 min or 2 months of storage at 35°C may be feasible strategies to mitigate the risk of most EHEC serovars in wheat flour.

Conventional molecular detection methods cannot distinguish between viable and dead Escherichia coli O157 cells. In this study, the loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) method combined with propidium monoazide (PMA) treatment was developed to selectively detect viable E. coli O157 cells. Four primers, including outer primers and inner primers, were specially designed for the recognition of six distinct sequences on the serogroups (O157) of the specific rfbE gene of the E. coli O157 genome. PMA selectively penetrated through the compromised cell membranes and intercalated into DNA. Amplification of DNA from dead cells was completely inhibited by 3.0 μg/ml PMA, whereas the DNA derived from viable cells was amplified remarkably within 1 h by PMA-LAMP. Exhibiting high sensitivity and specificity, PMA-LAMP is a suitable method for evaluating the inactivation efficacy of slightly acidic electrolyzed water in broth. PMA-LAMP can selectively detect viable E. coli O157 cells. This study offers a novel molecular detection method to distinguish between viable and dead E. coli O157 cells.

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