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Critical Reviews in Microbiology Sep 2023Since its development in the 1960s, flow cytometry (FCM) was quickly revealed a powerful tool to analyse cell populations in medical studies, yet, for many years, was... (Review)
Review
Since its development in the 1960s, flow cytometry (FCM) was quickly revealed a powerful tool to analyse cell populations in medical studies, yet, for many years, was almost exclusively used to analyse eukaryotic cells. Instrument and methodological limitations to distinguish genuine bacterial signals from the background, among other limitations, have hampered FCM applications in bacteriology. In recent years, thanks to the continuous development of FCM instruments and methods with a higher discriminatory capacity to detect low-size particles, FCM has emerged as an appealing technique to advance the study of microbes, with important applications in research, clinical and industrial settings. The capacity to rapidly enumerate and classify individual bacterial cells based on viability facilitates the monitoring of bacterial presence in foodstuffs or clinical samples, reducing the time needed to detect contamination or infectious processes. Besides, FCM has stood out as a valuable tool to advance the study of complex microbial communities, or microbiomes, that are very relevant in the context of human health, as well as to understand the interaction of bacterial and host cells. This review highlights current developments in, and future applications of, FCM in bacteriology, with a focus on those related to food and clinical microbiology.
Topics: Humans; Bacteriology; Flow Cytometry; Bacteria; Food Microbiology
PubMed: 35749433
DOI: 10.1080/1040841X.2022.2086035 -
Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science... Jan 2024Consumers expect safe, healthy, natural, and sustainable food. Within the food industry, ingredient use is changing due to these consumer demands. While no single... (Review)
Review
Consumers expect safe, healthy, natural, and sustainable food. Within the food industry, ingredient use is changing due to these consumer demands. While no single agreed-upon definition of clean label exists, a "clean label" in the context of food refers to a product that has a simplified and transparent ingredient list, with easily recognizable and commonly understood components to the general public. Clean-label products necessitate and foster a heightened level of transparency between companies and consumers. Dairy products are vulnerable to being contaminated by both pathogens and spoilage microorganisms. These microorganisms can be effectively controlled by replacing conventional antimicrobials with clean-label ingredients such as protective cultures or bacterial/fungal fermentates. This review summarizes the perspectives of consumers and the food industry regarding the definition of "clean label," and the current and potential future use of clean-label antimicrobials in dairy products. A key goal of this review is to make the concept of clean-label antimicrobial agents better understood by both manufacturers and researchers.
Topics: Food Microbiology; Anti-Infective Agents; Dairy Products
PubMed: 38284580
DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.13263 -
Microbiology (Reading, England) Jun 2024The past decade has seen growing awareness of the challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ scientists, including discrimination in the workplace and the lack of representation....
The past decade has seen growing awareness of the challenges faced by LGBTQIA+ scientists, including discrimination in the workplace and the lack of representation. Initiatives such as 500 Queer Scientists, Pride in STEM and the Microbiology Society's LGBTQIA+ events have been instrumental in promoting inclusivity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM). The Microbiology Society and its members have played a pivotal role in these efforts and summarized here are their initiatives towards safer and more inclusive scientific and research environments. Starting with a series of interviews and blog posts about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ microbiologists in research, the Society has promoted the organization of networking and social events and developed guidelines for creating more inclusive scientific conferences. These initiatives have not only improved the representation and visibility of LGBTQIA+ individuals in microbiology, but have also served as a blueprint for similar efforts in other scientific areas. Nevertheless, despite improvements in some areas, full inclusion of LGBTQIA+ scientists is still hindered by societal and institutional policies around the world. Here, we propose novel measures to support and empower LGBTQIA+ microbiological communities within learned societies.
Topics: Humans; Sexual and Gender Minorities; Microbiology; Female; Male; Societies, Scientific
PubMed: 38860877
DOI: 10.1099/mic.0.001468 -
Food Research International (Ottawa,... Nov 2023There is little known about the growth and survival of naturally-occurring Vibrio parahaemolyticus in harvested raw shrimps. In this study, the fate of...
There is little known about the growth and survival of naturally-occurring Vibrio parahaemolyticus in harvested raw shrimps. In this study, the fate of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in post-harvest raw shrimps was investigated from 4℃ to 30℃ using real-time PCR combined with propidium monoazide (PMA-qPCR). The Baranyi-model was used to fit the growth and survival data. A square root model and non-linear Arrhenius model was then used to quantify the parameters derived from the Baranyi-model. The results showed that naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus were slowly inactivated at 4℃ and 7℃ with deactivation rates of 0.019 Log CFU/g/h and 0.025 Log CFU/g/h. Conversely, at 15, 20, 25, and 30 °C, the average maximum growth rates (μ) of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus were determined to be 0.044, 0.105, 0.179 and 0.336 Log CFU/g/h, accompanied by the average lag phases (λ) of 15.5 h, 7.3 h, 4.4 h and 3.7 h. The validation metrics, A and B, for both the square root model and non-linear, indicating that the model had a good ability to predict the growth behavior of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in post-harvest raw shrimps. Furthermore, a comparative exploration between the growth of artificially contaminated V. parahaemolyticus in cooked shrimps and naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in post-harvest raw shrimps revealed intriguing insights. While no substantial distinction in deactivation rates emerged at 4 °C and 7 °C (P > 0.05), a discernible disparity in growth rates was observable at 15 °C, 20 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C, with the former surpassing the latter. Which indicated the risk of V. parahaemolyticus using models derived from cooked shrimps may be biased. Our study also unveiled a discernible seasonal effect. The μ and λ of V. parahaemolyticus in shrimps harvested in summer were similar to those harvested in autumn, while the initial and maximum bacterial concentration harvested in summer were higher than those harvested in autumn. This predictive microbiology model of naturally-occurring V. parahaemolyticus in raw shrimps provides relevance to modelling growth in situ.
Topics: Animals; Vibrio parahaemolyticus; Colony Count, Microbial; Food Microbiology; Seafood; Decapoda; Penaeidae
PubMed: 37803786
DOI: 10.1016/j.foodres.2023.113462 -
Nature Reviews. Microbiology May 2024
Topics: Wastewater; Water Microbiology
PubMed: 38413815
DOI: 10.1038/s41579-024-01033-1 -
Analytical Sciences : the International... Oct 2023Salmonella is a common intestinal pathogen that can cause food poisoning and intestinal disease. The high prevalence of Salmonella necessitates efficient and sensitive... (Review)
Review
Salmonella is a common intestinal pathogen that can cause food poisoning and intestinal disease. The high prevalence of Salmonella necessitates efficient and sensitive methods for its identification, detection, and monitoring, especially of viable Salmonella. Conventional culture methods need to be more laborious and time-consuming. And they are relatively limited in their ability to detect Salmonella in the viable but non-culturable status if present in the sample to be tested. As a result, there is an increasing need for rapid and accurate techniques to detect viable Salmonella spp. This paper reviewed the status and progress of various methods reported in recent years that can be used to detect viable Salmonella, such as culture-based methods, molecular methods targeting RNAs and DNAs, phage-based methods, biosensors, and some techniques that have the potential for future application. This review can provide researchers with a reference for additional method options and help facilitate the development of rapid and accurate assays. In the future, viable Salmonella detection approaches will become more stable, sensitive, and fast and are expected to play a more significant role in food safety and public health.
Topics: Salmonella; Food Microbiology; Biosensing Techniques; Food Safety
PubMed: 37378821
DOI: 10.1007/s44211-023-00384-8 -
Advanced Science (Weinheim,... Sep 2023Antibiotic overuse and the subsequent environmental contamination of residual antibiotics poses a public health crisis via an acceleration in the spread of antibiotic...
Antibiotic overuse and the subsequent environmental contamination of residual antibiotics poses a public health crisis via an acceleration in the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) through horizontal gene transfer. Although the occurrence, distribution, and driving factors of ARGs in soils have been widely investigated, little is known about the antibiotic resistance of soilborne pathogens at a global scale. To explore this gap, contigs from 1643 globally sourced metagnomes are assembled, yielding 407 ARG-carrying pathogens (APs) with at least one ARG; APs are detected in 1443 samples (sample detection rate of 87.8%). The richness of APs is greater in agricultural soils (with a median of 20) than in non-agricultural ecosystems. Agricultural soils possess a high prevalence of clinical APs affiliated with Escherichia, Enterobacter, Streptococcus, and Enterococcus. The APs detected in agricultural soils tend to coexist with multidrug resistance genes and bacA. A global map of soil AP richness is generated, where anthropogenic and climatic factors explained AP hot spots in East Asia, South Asia, and the eastern United States. The results herein advance this understanding of the global distribution of soil APs and determine regions prioritized to control soilborne APs worldwide.
Topics: Soil; Metagenomics; Ecosystem; Soil Microbiology; Anti-Bacterial Agents
PubMed: 37424042
DOI: 10.1002/advs.202301980 -
Nature Microbiology Dec 2023
Topics: Microbiology
PubMed: 38030904
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01532-6 -
Nature Microbiology Jan 2024
Topics: Anti-Bacterial Agents; Microbiota; Soil Microbiology
PubMed: 38177301
DOI: 10.1038/s41564-023-01568-8 -
Nature Oct 2023
Topics: Bacteria; Language; Virology; Microbiology
PubMed: 37853200
DOI: 10.1038/d41586-023-03149-5