Self-reporting hydrogels rapidly differentiate among enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) and non-virulent Escherichia coli (K12)

Abstract We report on the development of an autonomously reporting indicator hydrogel for the rapid and selective detection of enzymes secreted by the food-borne biosafety level 3 pathogen enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (E. coli) O157:H7 (EHEC) and the differentiation of this pathogen from the non-virulent E. coli strain K12. To introduce the sensing functionality, chitosan hydrogel films were equipped with fluorogenic substrates for the detection of α-galactosidase (α-Gal) and β-galactosidase (β-Gal), which are secreted by E. coli O157:H7, and β-glucuronidase (β-GUS), which is produced by the non-virulent E. coli K12 strain, but not by E. coli O157:H7, respectively. In the presence of …