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Journals
Microorganisms
Special Issues
Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments
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Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments

A special issue of Microorganisms (ISSN 2076-2607). This special issue belongs to the section "Food Microbiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2022) | Viewed by 18959

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Vittorio Capozzi

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Guest Editor
DAFNE Department, University of Foggia, Foggia, Italy
Interests: fermentation; direct injection mass spectrometry; bioprocess; microbes; volatilomics; food biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Pasquale Russo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Sciences of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, University of Foggia (Foggia, Italy), Via Napoli 25, 71122 Foggia, Italy
Interests: food microbiology; food biotechnology; lactic acid bacteria; fermentation; food pathogens; antimicrobial activity; biofortification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Carmen Berbegal

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
ENOLAB, Estructura de Recerca Interdisciplinar (ERI), BioTecMed and Departament de Microbiologia i Ecología, Universitat de València, c/ Dr. Moliner 50, 46100 Burjassot, València, Spain
Interests: food biotechnology; food microbiology; wine yeasts; lactic acid bacteria; fermentation; biocontrol; starter cultures
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Foodborne microorganisms experience stress in a variety of food-related environments such as food matrices, food production plants, food storage, home processing, and, after food ingestion, human oro-gastrointestinal tract. Moreover, deliberately added microbial cultures have to face further stress encountered during their industrial production (e.g., freeze-drying, spray-drying, storage). Stress exposure has a distinct significance in food production. On the one side, it is precious to limit the development of spoilage microbes and pathogens. On the other, stressing conditions challenge the desired microorganisms in the food chain (i.e., starter cultures, bio-protective cultures, and probiotics). Mechanisms for sensing and responding to food-related environmental changes are studied in foodborne microbes (e.g., bacteria, yeasts) in order to understand the systems and adaptive strategies that allow their survival and propagation and to ensure technological and functional performances.

Considering your interest in this current research topic, we cordially invite you to submit a high-quality original research paper or review to this Special Issue of Microorganisms.

Dr. Vittorio Capozzi
Dr. Pasquale Russo
Dr. Carmen Berbegal
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Microorganisms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Stress response
  • Starter cultures
  • Probiotics
  • Spoilage microbes
  • Pathogens
  • Food-related stressors
  • Abiotic stress
  • Acid/basic stress
  • Thermal stress
  • Starvation
  • Solvent stress
  • Bile stress
  • Biotic stress
  • Food environment

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 1349 KiB  
Article
Pre-Growth Environmental Stresses Affect Foodborne Pathogens Response to Subsequent Chemical Treatments
by Amandeep Singh and Veerachandra Yemmireddy
Microorganisms 2022, 10(4), 786; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10040786 - 8 Apr 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2456
Abstract
Foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes are known to survive under different environmental stresses with an effect on their physiological properties. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of different environmental stresses on the [...] Read more.
Foodborne pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes are known to survive under different environmental stresses with an effect on their physiological properties. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of different environmental stresses on the foodborne pathogens response to subsequent chemical treatments. Three types of pathogens Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, and Listeria monocytogenes were subjected to different environmental stresses: (i) Desiccation (ii) high salt (iii) low pH, and (iv) temperatures (14, 23, and 37 °C) during their growth. The cells harvested at their early stationary growth phase were subsequently subjected to chlorine (100 or 200 ppm), peracetic acid (40 or 80 ppm), and 0.5% lactic acid treatments. The results showed that pre-growth stress conditions have significant effect on the reduction of tested pathogens depending upon the type of chemical treatment. Salmonella showed the highest sensitivity against all these treatments when compared to E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes. In addition, Listeria monocytogenes showed the highest percentage of sub-lethally injured cells. These findings highlighted the need to consider pre-growth conditions as an important factor for the validation of physical and chemical intervention treatments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments)
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16 pages, 2180 KiB  
Article
Differential Analysis of Stress Tolerance and Transcriptome of Probiotic Lacticaseibacillus casei Zhang Produced from Solid-State (SSF-SW) and Liquid-State (LSF-MRS) Fermentations
by Pengyu Wu, Jing An, Liang Chen, Qiuyan Zhu, Yingjun Li, Yuxia Mei, Zhenmin Chen and Yunxiang Liang
Microorganisms 2020, 8(11), 1656; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8111656 - 26 Oct 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2979
Abstract
The property differences between bacteria produced from solid-state and liquid-state fermentations have always been the focus of attention. This study analyzed the stress tolerance and transcriptomic differences of the probiotic Lacticaseibacillus casei Zhang produced from solid-state and liquid-state fermentations under no direct stress. [...] Read more.
The property differences between bacteria produced from solid-state and liquid-state fermentations have always been the focus of attention. This study analyzed the stress tolerance and transcriptomic differences of the probiotic Lacticaseibacillus casei Zhang produced from solid-state and liquid-state fermentations under no direct stress. The total biomass of L. casei Zhang generated from liquid-state fermentation with MRS medium (LSF-MRS) was 2.24 times as much as that from solid-state fermentation with soybean meal-wheat bran (SSF-SW) medium. Interestingly, NaCl, H2O2, and ethanol stress tolerances and the survival rate after L. casei Zhang agent preparation from SSF-SW fermentation were significantly higher than those from LSF-MRS fermentation. The global transcriptomic analysis revealed that in L. casei Zhang produced from SSF-SW fermentation, carbohydrate transport, gluconeogenesis, inositol phosphate metabolism were promoted, that pentose phosphate pathway was up-regulated to produce more NADPH, that citrate transport and fermentation was extremely significantly promoted to produce pyruvate and ATP, and that pyruvate metabolism was widely up-regulated to form lactate, acetate, ethanol, and succinate from pyruvate and acetyl-CoA, whereas glycolysis was suppressed, and fatty acid biosynthesis was suppressed. Moreover, in response to adverse stresses, some genes encoding aquaporins (GlpF), superoxide dismutase (SOD), nitroreductase, iron homeostasis-related proteins, trehalose operon repressor TreR, alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), and TetR/AcrR family transcriptional regulators were up-regulated in L. casei Zhang produced from SSF-SW fermentation. Our findings provide novel insight into the differences in growth performance, carbon and lipid metabolisms, and stress tolerance between L. casei Zhang from solid-state and liquid-state fermentations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments)
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19 pages, 645 KiB  
Article
Transcriptomic and Phenotypic Analyses of the Sigma B-Dependent Characteristics and the Synergism between Sigma B and Sigma L in Listeria monocytogenes EGD-e
by Mirjami Mattila, Panu Somervuo, Hannu Korkeala, Roger Stephan and Taurai Tasara
Microorganisms 2020, 8(11), 1644; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8111644 - 23 Oct 2020
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2547
Abstract
Numerous gene expression and stress adaptation responses in L. monocytogenes are regulated through alternative sigma factors σB and σL. Stress response phenotypes and transcriptomes were compared between L. monocytogenes EGD-e and its ΔsigB and ΔsigBL mutants. Targeted growth [...] Read more.
Numerous gene expression and stress adaptation responses in L. monocytogenes are regulated through alternative sigma factors σB and σL. Stress response phenotypes and transcriptomes were compared between L. monocytogenes EGD-e and its ΔsigB and ΔsigBL mutants. Targeted growth phenotypic analysis revealed that the ΔsigB and ΔsigBL mutants are impaired during growth under cold and organic-acid stress conditions. Phenotypic microarrays revealed increased sensitivity in both mutants to various antimicrobial compounds. Genes de-regulated in these two mutants were identified by genome-wide transcriptome analysis during exponential growth in BHI. The ΔsigB and ΔsigBL strains repressed 198 and 254 genes, respectively, compared to the parent EGD-e strain at 3 °C, whereas 86 and 139 genes, respectively, were repressed in these mutants during growth at 37 °C. Genes repressed in these mutants are involved in various cellular functions including transcription regulation, energy metabolism and nutrient transport functions, and viral-associated processes. Exposure to cold stress induced a significant increase in σB and σL co-dependent genes of L. monocytogenes EGD-e since most (62%) of the down-regulated genes uncovered at 3 °C were detected in the ΔsigBL double-deletion mutant but not in ΔsigB or ΔsigL single-deletion mutants. Overall, the current study provides an expanded insight into σB and σL phenotypic roles and functional interactions in L. monocytogenes. Besides previously known σB- and σL-dependent genes, the transcriptomes defined in ΔsigB and ΔsigBL mutants reveal several new genes that are positively regulated by σB alone, as well as those co-regulated through σB- and σL-dependent mechanisms during L. monocytogenes growth under optimal and cold-stress temperature conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments)
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11 pages, 1630 KiB  
Article
Effect of Several Nutrients and Environmental Conditions on Intracellular Melatonin Synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
by María Ángeles Morcillo-Parra, Gemma Beltran, Albert Mas and María-Jesús Torija
Microorganisms 2020, 8(6), 853; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8060853 - 5 Jun 2020
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2839
Abstract
Melatonin is a bioactive compound that is present in fermented beverages and has been described to be synthesized by yeast during alcoholic fermentation. The aim of this study was to assess the capacity of intracellular and extracellular melatonin production by different Saccharomyces strains [...] Read more.
Melatonin is a bioactive compound that is present in fermented beverages and has been described to be synthesized by yeast during alcoholic fermentation. The aim of this study was to assess the capacity of intracellular and extracellular melatonin production by different Saccharomyces strains from diverse food origin and to study the effects of different fermentation parameters, such as sugar and nitrogen concentration, temperature or initial population, on melatonin production using a synthetic grape must medium. Melatonin from fermentation samples was analyzed by liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Intracellular melatonin synthesis profile did not present differences between yeast strains. However, extracellular melatonin production depended on the yeast origin. Thus, we suggest that melatonin production and secretion during the different yeast growth phases follows a species-specific pattern. Other parameters that affected the fermentation process such as sugar content and low temperature had an impact on intracellular melatonin production profile, as well as the melatonin content within the cell. This study reports the effect of several conditions on the melatonin synthesis profile, highlighting its possible role as a signal molecule. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments)
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15 pages, 2579 KiB  
Article
Transcriptome Analysis of Gene Expression in Dermacoccus abyssi HZAU 226 under Lysozyme Stress
by Xinshuai Zhang, Yao Ruan, Wukang Liu, Qian Chen, Lihong Gu and Ailing Guo
Microorganisms 2020, 8(5), 707; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8050707 - 11 May 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3231
Abstract
Lysozyme acts as a kind of cationic antimicrobial protein and effectively hydrolyzes bacterial peptidoglycan to have a bactericidal effect, which also plays an important role in protecting eggs from microbial contamination. Dermacoccus abyssi HZAU 226, a Gram-positive bacterium isolated from spoiled eggs, has [...] Read more.
Lysozyme acts as a kind of cationic antimicrobial protein and effectively hydrolyzes bacterial peptidoglycan to have a bactericidal effect, which also plays an important role in protecting eggs from microbial contamination. Dermacoccus abyssi HZAU 226, a Gram-positive bacterium isolated from spoiled eggs, has egg white and lysozyme tolerance, but its survival mechanism is unknown, especially from a transcriptomics point of view. In this study, the high lysozyme tolerance of D. abyssi HZAU 226 was characterized by three independent experiments, and then the Illumina RNA-seq was used to compare the transcriptional profiles of this strain in Luria–Bertani (LB) medium with and without 5 mg/mL lysozyme to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs); 1024 DEGs were identified by expression analysis, including 544 up-regulated genes and 480 down-regulated genes in response to lysozyme treatment. The functional annotation analysis results of DEGs showed that these genes were mainly involved in glutathione biosynthesis and metabolism, ion transport, energy metabolism pathways, and peptidoglycan biosynthesis. This study is the first report of bacterial-related lysozyme RNA-seq, and our results help in understanding the lysozyme-tolerance mechanism of bacteria from a new perspective and provide transcriptome resources for subsequent research in related fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments)
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Review

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19 pages, 782 KiB  
Review
Roles of Aerotolerance, Biofilm Formation, and Viable but Non-Culturable State in the Survival of Campylobacter jejuni in Poultry Processing Environments
by Diksha Pokhrel, Hudson T. Thames, Li Zhang, Thu T. N. Dinh, Wes Schilling, Shecoya B. White, Reshma Ramachandran and Anuraj Theradiyil Sukumaran
Microorganisms 2022, 10(11), 2165; https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10112165 - 31 Oct 2022
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 2853
Abstract
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common causes of foodborne human gastroenteritis in the developed world. This bacterium colonizes in the ceca of chickens, spreads throughout the poultry production chain, and contaminates poultry products. Despite numerous on farm intervention strategies and developments [...] Read more.
Campylobacter jejuni is one of the most common causes of foodborne human gastroenteritis in the developed world. This bacterium colonizes in the ceca of chickens, spreads throughout the poultry production chain, and contaminates poultry products. Despite numerous on farm intervention strategies and developments in post-harvest antimicrobial treatments, C. jejuni is frequently detected on broiler meat products. This indicates that C. jejuni is evolving over time to overcome the stresses/interventions that are present throughout poultry production and processing. The development of aerotolerance has been reported to be a major survival strategy used by C. jejuni in high oxygen environments. Recent studies have indicated that C. jejuni can enter a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state or develop biofilm in response to environmental stressors such as refrigeration and freezing stress and aerobic stress. This review provides an overview of different stressors that C. jejuni are exposed to throughout the poultry production chain and the genotypic and phenotypic survival mechanisms, with special attention to aerotolerance, biofilm formation, and development of the VBNC state. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Microbial Stress Response in Food-Related Environments)
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