Salmonella infection is an important foodborne consumer health concern that can be mitigated during food processing. Bacteriophage therapy imparts many advantages over conventional chemical preservatives including pathogen specificity, natural derivation, potency, and providing a high degree of safety. The objective of this study aimed to isolate and characterize a phage that effectively control Salmonella food contamination. Out of 35 isolated phages, LPSE1 demonstrated a broad Salmonella host range, robust lytic ability, extensive pH tolerance, and prolonged thermal stability. The capacity for phage LPSE1 to control Salmonella Enteritidis-ATCC13076 in milk, sausage, and lettuce was established. Incubation of LPSE1 at 28°C in milk reduced recoverable Salmonella by approximately 1.44 log10 CFU/mL and 2.37 log10 CFU/mL at MOI of 1 and 100, respectively, as relative to the phage-excluded control. Upon administration of LPSE1 at an MOI of 1 in sausage, Salmonella count decreased 0.52 log10 at 28°C. At MOI of 100, the count decreased 0.49 log10 at 4°C. Incubation of LPSE1 on lettuce reduced recoverable Salmonella by 2.02 log10, 1.71 log10, and 1.45 log10 CFU/mL at an MOI of 1, 10, and 100, respectively, as relative to the negative control. Taken together, these findings establish LPSE1 as an effective weapon against human pathogenic Salmonella in various ready to eat foods.

Protoplasts of Malbranchea pulchella var. sulfurea were isolated from 14 h culture grown in YpSs and production media or 36 h culture from minimal medium; protoplast yields were, 1 X 104, 7.0 X 106 and 7.2 X 106/ml, respectively. A cell density of 40 mg/ml in phosphate buffer (0.05 M, pH 5.5) containing 0.6 M KCl as stabilizer, was most suitable; Novozym 234 + $-glucuronidase were effective as lytic system. Protoplasts were easily maintained at 50°C for 60 min without loss of viability. A 70-90% regeneration frequency was achieved in five different liquid and solid media.Fungal protoplasts have been used in a variety of studies including strain improvement and fusion to prepare hybrids for genetic analysis (1, 8). However, a majority of these investigations deal almost exclusively with the mesophilic fungal species. Thermophilic fungi have gained considerable interest in biotechnology in view of their strong enzymatic machinery and thermal stability of the proteins (10,12,13,17).However, several important species such as Humicola lanuginosa, Malbranchea pulchella var, sulfurea, Sporotrichum thermophile and Scytalidium thermophilum are imperfect and genetic improvement is difficult. Recently, protoplasts of S. thermophile were prepared and immobilized for lipase production (6, I1). Malbranchea pulchella var. sulfurea is characterized by its sulfur-colored, somewhat mealy growth, yellow conidia in chains and production of penicillins (3). Since it produces a wide array of hydrolytic enzymes (16), an attempt was made to develop a protoplasting system for strain improvement.Malbranchea pulchella var, sulfurea, a coal mine isolate, was maintained on YpSs agar containing (g/l): yeast extract, 4.0; K2HP04, 1.0; MgS04.7H20, 0.5; soluble starch, 15.0; agar, 20, pH 7.0. The mold was grown in production medium