Antibacterial peptides from seafood: A promising weapon to combat bacterial hazards in food

Foodborne spoilage and pathogenic bacteria reduce shelf-life whilst infections caused by pathogenic bacteria are a public health liability. Mankind have been continuously prospecting for high-efficiency and environmentally friendly technology to reduce spoilage and pathogenic bacteria in the food chain. One example of this technology is molecular biology where recent advances are enabling the mining of oceanic genome resources for antibacterial peptides (ABPs). These ABPs from seafood have broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against bacterial hazards and show great promise for expanding the food supply. This review catalogues the diversity of ABPs derived from seafood. ABP-related genes are widely distributed in the genome of seafood, including fish, shrimp, crab and shellfish, etc. The products of these genes constitute a useful pool of compounds for developing novel food decontamination strategies. Efficient technologies already exist for obtaining high-quality seafood-derived ABPs included biological extraction, recombinant protein expression and solid phase synthesis. The two main bactericidal mechanisms of seafood-derived ABPs are disintegration of cell membrane and intracellular action. These ABPs can be used in all key bottlenecks in the food chain ranging from farm to fork. This review concludes by discussing the prospect of optimizing the production strategy of antibacterial peptides, improving antibacterial activity and explores possible applications in the food chain. This review provides a useful reference for more in-depth study of seafood-derived ABPs in the field of food industry and food safety.