Yersinia sp. infections are the third most common bacterial infections of humans in the European Union. Yersinioses range from self-limited enteritis to life-threatening systemic infections. The most frequent manifestation is diarrhea, mainly affecting children. While antibiotic treatment is recommended for serious cases, rehydration and use of probiotics are often suggested for simple diarrheal cases. Colicin FY (54 kDa) is produced by a nonpathogenic isolate of Yersinia frederiksenii. Colicin FY recognizes a yersinia-specific outer membrane protein YiuR as a receptor molecule and thus its activity spectrum comprises strains of the genus Yersinia, especially strains of Y. enterocolitica. Under in vitro conditions, colicin FY inhibits all Y. enterocolitica strains, while all other tested enterobacterial strains are colicin FY resistant (Bosák et al., 2012, 2013). Synthesis of colicin FY would represent an important feature of probiotics used for the treatment of yersiniosis, but the therapeutic potential of colicin FY has to be verifying in an animal model.

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