Research Publications (Food Safety)

Environmental Microbiology, EarlyView.

Environmental Microbiology, EarlyView.

Environmental Microbiology, EarlyView.

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, EarlyView. Listeria monocytogenes, the causative agent of listeriosis, has been implicated in increasing foodborne outbreaks worldwide. The disease is manifested in various forms ranging from severe sepsis in immune-compromised individuals, febrile gastroenteritis, still birth, abortions and meningoencephalitis. In India, data from studies on the detection and molecular epidemiological analysis of L. monocytogenes are only recently emerging.

Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen causing systemic infection with high mortality. To allow efficient tracing of outbreaks a clear definition of the genomic signature of a cluster of related isolates is required, but lineage specific characteristics call for a more detailed understanding of evolution. In our work we used core genome MLST (cgMLST) to identify new outbreaks combined to core genome SNP analysis to characterize the population structure and gene flow between lineages.

The second messenger cyclic di‐AMP (c‐di‐AMP) is essential for growth of many bacteria because it controls osmolyte homeostasis. c‐di‐AMP can regulate the synthesis of potassium uptake systems in some bacteria and also directly inhibits and activates potassium import and export systems, respectively. Therefore, c‐di‐AMP production and degradation have to be tightly regulated depending on the environmental osmolarity.

Many Listeria species including L. monocytogenes contain the pathway for the biosynthesis of protocatechuate from shikimate and quinate. The qui1 and qui2 operons within these Listeria spp. encode enzymes for this pathway. The diversion of shikimate pathway intermediates in some Listeria species to produce protocatechuate suggests an important biological role for this compound to these organisms.

Summary

Virulence traits are essential for pathogen fitness but whether they affect microbial performance in the environment, where they are not needed, remains experimentally unconfirmed. We investigated this question with the facultative pathogen Listeria monocytogenes and its PrfA virulence regulon. PrfA-regulated genes are activated intracellularly (PrfA “ON”) but shut down outside the host (PrfA “OFF”).