Research Publications (Food Safety)

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and dioxin-like compounds, including sulfur, nitrogen and oxygen heterocycles, are widespread and toxic environmental pollutants. A wide variety of microorganisms capable of growing with aromatic polycyclic compounds are essential for bioremediation of the contaminated sites and the Earth's carbon cycle.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. The use of microorganisms for Aflatoxin B1 elimination has been studied as a new alternative tool and it is known that cell wall carried out a critical role. For that reason, cell wall and soluble intracellular fraction of 8 yeasts with AFB1 detoxification capability was analysed.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. During a field experiment applying broiler manure for fertilization of agricultural land, we detected viable Clostridioides (also known as Clostridium) difficile in broiler feces, manure, dust, and fertilized soil. A large diversity of toxigenic C. difficile isolates was recovered, including PCR ribotypes common from human disease. Genomic relatedness of C.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article.

Background The global epidemiology and resistomes dynamics of multidrug‐resistant Citrobacter spp., Enterobacter hormaechei, Klebsiella variicola, Morganella morganii, Proteus mirabilis and Providencia spp. have not been described, despite their importance as emerging opportunistic clinical pathogens. Methods The genomes of the above‐mentioned organisms were curated from PATRIC and NCBI and used for evolutionary epidemiology, phylogeography and resistome analyses.

Alphaproteobacteria are typically characterized by a multipartite genome organization with a chromosome, stable chromids and accessory plasmids. Extrachromosomal elements determine the lifestyle of roseobacters and their horizontal transfer was previously correlated with rapid adaptations to novel ecological niches. We characterized the distribution and biology of a novel Rhodobacteraceae‐specific plasmid type that was designated RepC_soli according to its diagnostic solitary replicase.

We evaluated Streptomyces biogeography in soils along a 1,200 km latitudinal transect across New Zealand (NZ). Streptomyces diversity was examined using high‐throughput sequencing of rpoB amplicons generated with a Streptomyces specific primer set. We detected 1,287 Streptomyces rpoB operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with 159 ± 92 (average ± s.d.) rpoB OTUs per site. Only 12% (n = 149) of these OTUs matched rpoB sequences from cultured specimens (99% nucleotide identity cutoff).

Amphiphilic siderophores including amphibactins are the most abundant siderophores in oceans. Genes putatively encoding the amphibactin system were proposed in some bacteria and homologues of these genes are particulary abundant in multiple bacterial lineages inhabitant of low‐iron seawater. However, since no defective mutant strains in any of these genes were studied to date, their role in amphibactin synthesis or uptake were not demonstrated.

Wheat scab, mainly caused by Fusarium graminearum, can decrease wheat yield and grain quality. Chemical pesticides are currently the main control method but have an inevitable negative consequence on the environment and in food safety. This research studies a promising substitute, Streptomyces pratensis S10, which was isolated from tomato leaf mold and shows a significant inhibition effect on F. graminearum based on antagonism assays.

MerF, a proposed bacterial mercury transporter, was surprisingly found to play key roles in the flagellum biogenesis and motility but not mercuric resistance of the deep‐sea bacterium Pseudomonas stutzeri 273 in our previous study. However, the mechanism behind this interesting discovery has not been elucidated. Here, we firstly applied the combined transcriptomic and proteomic analysis to the P. stutzeri 273 wild type and merF deletion mutant.

Cadmium (Cd) is a common toxic heavy metal in the environment, and bacteria have evolved different strategies against Cd‐toxicity. Here we found that marine bacterium Bacillus sp. 98 could significantly alleviate Cd‐toxicity by recruiting calcium (Ca) for reducing excessive intracellular nitric oxide (NO) and enhancing iron acquisition. To investigate the underlying mechanisms, mass spectrometry‐based proteomic analysis was applied to Bacillus sp.

Vibrio cholerae isolates responsible for cholera pandemics represent only a small portion of the diverse strains belonging to this species. Indeed, most V. cholerae are encountered in aquatic environments. To better understand the emergence of pandemic lineages, it is crucial to discern what differentiates pandemic strains from their environmental relatives. Here, we studied the interaction of environmental V.

To assess the comparability between taxonomic identification methods for phytoplankton, multiple approaches were used to characterize phytoplankton community composition within the Neuse River Estuary (NRE), North Carolina.

The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae serves as a model organism for many important processes ranging from pathogenesis to natural transformation, which has been extensively studied in this bacterium. Previous work has deciphered important regulatory circuits involved in natural competence induction as well as mechanistic details related to its DNA acquisition and uptake potential. However, since competence was first reported for V.

In the absence of an efficient drug treatment or a vaccine, the control of the COVID‐19 pandemic relies on classic infection control measures. Since these means are socially disruptive and come with substantial economic loss for societies, a better knowledge of the epidemiology of the new coronavirus epidemic is crucial to achieve control at a sustainable cost and within tolerable restrictions of civil rights.

Microbial ecology and activity in wine production influences grapevine health and productivity, conversion of sugar to ethanol during fermentation, wine aroma, wine quality and distinctiveness. Fungi in the vineyard ecosystem are not well described.

Mitogen‐activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades are highly conserved in eukaryotic cells and known to play crucial roles in the regulation of various cellular processes. However, compared with kinase‐mediated phosphorylation, dephosphorylation catalyzed by phosphatases has not been well characterized in filamentous fungi.

Bacillus cereus is a ubiquitous endospore‐forming bacterium, which mainly affects humans as a food‐borne pathogen. B. cereus can contaminate groundwater used to irrigate food crops. Here, we examined the ability of the emetic strain B. cereus F4810/72 to survive abiotic conditions encountered in groundwater. Our results showed that vegetative B. cereus cells rapidly evolved in a mixed population composed of endospores and asporogenic variants bearing spo0A mutations.

Heavy metal is one of the major factors threatening the survival of microorganisms. Here, a deep‐sea bacterium designated Idiomarina sp. OT37‐5b possessing strong cadmium (Cd) tolerance was isolated from a typical hydrothermal vent. Both Cd‐resistance and removal efficiency of Idiomarina sp. OT37‐5b were significantly promoted by the supplement of cysteine and meanwhile large amount of CdS nanoparticles were observed.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are widespread and harmful contaminants and are more persistent under anaerobic conditions. The bioremediation of PAHs in anaerobic zones has been enhanced by treating the contamination with nitrate, which is thermodynamically favourable, cost‐effective, and highly soluble. However, anaerobic PAHs biotransformation processes that employ nitrate as an electron acceptor have not been fully explored.

The dissemination and abundances of Vibrio species in aquatic environments are of interest, as some species cause emerging diseases in humans and in aquatic organisms like fish. It is suggested that Vibrio cholerae non‐O1 infections of Plecoglossus altivelis (‘ayu’) were spread to various parts of Japan through the annual transplantation of juvenile fish. To investigate this, we used genome‐aided tracing of 17 V.

Lysobacter enzymogenes is a nonflagellated, soil proteobacterium that secretes a diffusible antibiotic known as heat‐stable antifungal factor (HSAF) to kill nearby fungi for food. The genome of the model strain OH11 encodes a homologous Wsp system, which is generally deployed by flagellated bacteria to achieve flagella‐dependent outputs via a c‐di‐GMP‐FleQ complex, in which c‐di‐GMP is a ubiquitous dinucleotide second messenger and FleQ is a transcription factor (TF).

As filter‐feeders, bivalve molluscs accumulate Vibrio into edible tissues. Consequently, an accurate assessment of depuration procedures and the characterization of the persistent Vibrio community in depurated shellfish represent a key issue to guarantee food safety in shellfish products. The present study investigated changes in the natural Vibrio community composition of the Ruditapes philippinarum microbiota with specific focus on human pathogenic species.

Research on the initial phage‐host interaction has been conducted on a limited repertoire of phages and their cognate receptors, such as phage λ and the Escherichia coli LamB (EcLamB) protein. Apart from phage λ, little is known about other phages which target EcLamB. Here, we developed a simple method for isolating novel environmental phages in a predictable way, i.e. isolating phages which target a particular receptor(s) of a bacterium, in this case, the EcLamB protein.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the most persistent xenobiotic compounds, with high toxicity effects. Mycoremediation with halophilic Aspergillus sydowii was used for their removal from a hypersaline medium (1 M NaCl). A. sydowii used PAHs as sole carbon sources, resulting in the removal of up to 90% for both PAHs (benzo [a] pyrene (BaP) and phenanthrene (Phe)) after 10 days.