Research Publications (Food Safety)

Background: Tuberculosis, mainly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), is an ancient human disease that gravely affects millions of people annually. We wanted to explore the genetic diversity and lineage-specific association of Mtb with drug resistance among pulmonary tuberculosis patients.

Author(s): Unji Kim, Ye-Ji Moon, Jin-Hee Kim, So-Young Lee, Se-Wook Oh The filter concentration method facilitates the rapid detection of foodborne pathogens. The filter concentration method lowered the limit of detection (LOD) of artificially inoculated cabbage with Salmonella Typhimurium; however, the procedure injured foodborne pathogens during filtering procedure.

Author(s): Kai Liu, Dongmei Yue, Xinru Mao, Hu Li, Jie Qu, Shuiping Liu, Viktor I. Korolchuk, Yunhuan Liu, Fang Gan, Cuiling Pan, Kehe Huang, Xingxiang Chen

Author(s): Yue Zhu, Peixian Luan, Xiao Liu, Jun Bao, Qi Liu, Jingzeng Cai, Jie Yang, Ziwei Zhang

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Studies have shown that ruminants constitute reservoirs of Listeria monocytogenes, but little is known about the epidemiology and genetic diversity of this pathogen within farms. Here we conducted a large-scale longitudinal study to monitor Listeria spp. in 19 dairy farms during three consecutive seasons (N=3251 samples). L. innocua was the most prevalent species, followed by L. monocytogenes. L.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Myst family are highly conserved histone acetyltransferases in eukaryotic cells and are known to play crucial roles in various cellular processes, however, acetylation catalyzed by acetyltransferases is unclear in filamentous fungi. Here, we identified two classical nonessential Myst enzymes and analyzed their functions in Aspergillus flavus, which generates aflatoxin B1, one of the most carcinogenic secondary metabolites.

Author(s): Jin Hong Mok, Ye Niu, Ahmed Yousef, Yi Zhao, Sudhir K. Sastry

Author(s): Guang Yang, Difan Fang, Liming Yang, Zengming Wei, Yunyun Tu, Penghui Shao, Zan Hua, Zhongkai Wang, Xubiao Luo

Author(s): Aichen Zhang, Hongbin Cao, Yang Jiang, Yanjiao Chen, Jianwei Liu, Xu Zhou, Anqi Zhou, Yue Gao, Jie Li

Author(s): Mònica Campàs, Sandra Leonardo, Naomasa Oshiro, Kyoko Kuniyoshi, Takeshi Tsumuraya, Masahiro Hirama, Jorge Diogène

Author(s): Jiakang Li, Lei Yang, Xuelin Huang, Yiping Wen, Qin Zhao, Xiaobo Huang, Jing Xia, Yong Huang, Sanjie Cao, Senyan Du, Rui Wu, Likou Zou, Qigui Yan, Xinfeng Han

This study investigated the impact of malting of six wheat cultivars inoculated with Fusarium culmorum on the dynamics of content changes of selected Fusarium toxins. The grains of all the tested cultivars showed a high content of deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN), and their derivatives, whereas nivalenol (NIV) and its glucoside were found only in the Legenda cultivar.

Spider venom is a valuable resource for the development of novel anticancer drugs. In this study, we focused on novel linear amphipathic α-helical anticancer peptide LVTX-9, which was derived from the cDNA library of the venom gland of the spider Lycosa vittata. The cytotoxicity of LVTX-9 against murine melanoma cells in the range of 1.56–200 μM was tested and found to be significantly lower than those of most anticancer peptides reported.

This study investigated the molecular characteristics of rifampin-resistant (RIF-R) Staphylococcus aureus isolates recovered from 4300 retail food samples covering most provincial capitals in China, from 2011 to 2016. Of the 1463 S. aureus enrolled, 149 isolates (142 MSSA and 7 MRSA) were identified as rifampicin-resistant, including 20 high-level (MICs ≥ 8 μg/mL) and 129 low-level (MICs between 2 and 4 μg/mL) rifampicin-resistant strains. Most of the RIF-R S.

Journal of Applied Microbiology, Accepted Article. Aims
This study examined the effects of water activity (aw), ammonia, and Corynebacterium urealyticum on the survival of Salmonella Typhimurium in sterile poultry litter.

by Fangtao Li, Jiyu Liu, Jizhe Yang, Haoran Sun, Zhimin Jiang, Chenxi Wang, Xin Zhang, Yinghui Yu, Chuankuo Zhao, Juan Pu, Yipeng Sun, Kin-Chow Chang, Jinhua Liu, Honglei Sun

Author(s): Peifang Chen, Chenbiao Li, Xiaoyuan Ma, Zhouping Wang, Yin Zhang

Author(s): Heng Li, Jinging Sun, Hongjie Gui, Dong Xia, Yuanpeng Wang

Author(s): Shuang Xie, Hang Zhang, Radebe Stoffel Matjeke, Jiayi Zhao, Qinghua Yu Bacillus coagulans (B. coagulans) have proven to be effective in improving the development of gut immunity and microbiome, and offering protection against pathogens, especially in young animals. The newborn chicks are highly vulnerable to the foodborne pathogenic Salmonella infections, leading to high mortality and economic loss. However, whether B.

Author(s): Dandan Zhou, Tingting Li, Kaiping Cong, Andi Suo, Caie Wu

Author(s): Sarah Azinheiro, Joana Carvalho, Pablo Fuciños, Lorenzo Pastrana, Marta Prado, Alejandro Garrido-Maestu

An excellent bactericidal effect of octyl gallate (OG)-mediated photodynamic inactivation (PDI) against foodborne pathogens (Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) was evaluated in relation to the mode of action. UV-A irradiation (wavelength, 365 nm; irradiance, 8.254 ± 0.18 mW/cm2) of the bacterial suspension containing 0.15 mM OG could lead to a >5-log reduction of viable cell counts within 30 min for E. coli and only 5 min for S. aureus.

Escherichia coli is a priority foodborne pathogen of public health concern and phenotypic serotyping provides critical information for surveillance and outbreak detection activities.

Rare invasive fungal infections are increasingly emerging in hosts with predisposing factors such as immunodeficiency. Their timely diagnosis remains difficult, as their clinical picture may initially mimic infections with more common fungal species and species identification may be difficult with routine methods or may require time-consuming subcultures. This often results in ineffective drug administration and fatal outcomes.

Industrial production of Tenebrio molitor larvae (TML), a promising source of protein for food, requires safety, fast growth, maturation, and high survival. Probiotics, enhance host growth and protect against pathogens and diseases. This study evaluates the effects of three probiotic bacteria immobilized on the diet of mealworms, on growth performance, nutritional value, and microbial load of T. molitor larvae.