TY - JOUR
T1 - Surface topography and chemistry of food contact substances, and microbial nutrition affect pathogen persistence and symbiosis in cocktail Listeria monocytogenes biofilms
AU - Gu, Tingting
AU - Luo, Yaguang
AU - Jia, Zhen
AU - Meesrison, Apisak
AU - Lin, Sophia
AU - Ventresca, Isabella J.
AU - Brooks, Sarah J.
AU - Sharma, Arnav
AU - Sriram, Sitara
AU - Yang, Manyun
AU - Pearlstein, Arne J.
AU - Millner, Patricia D.
AU - Schneider, Keith R.
AU - Zhang, Boce
N1 - The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Joey L. Mead, Dr. Yuyu Sun, Dr. Ruogu Tang, Ms. Ellen Turner, and UMass Lowell’s Core Research Facility for technical and logistical assistance. This work was funded, in part, through a subrecipient grant ( 2019CPS13 ) awarded by The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) through the California Department of Food and Agriculture 2018 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, funding for which was made possible by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s ( USDA ) Agricultural Marketing Service through grant USDA-AMS-TM-SCBGP-G-18-0003 . Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA. This research was also supported by start-up funds from the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences , and by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (Hatch Project Accession number 7003266 ; NRS project number FLA-FOS-006251 ).
PY - 2024/7
Y1 - 2024/7
N2 - The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) can form very persistent biofilms on food contact substances, either in monospecies, or in conjunction with background microflora. Although some studies have investigated how bacterial symbiosis facilitates L. monocytogenes survival in complex cocktail biofilms, very little is known about how this core symbiotic relationship is affected by environmental factors. Here, we investigate how L. monocytogenes persistence is affected by symbiosis with Escherichia coli O157:H7, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Ralstonia insidiosa, and how these relationships are impacted by environmental factors, including food contact surface topography and chemistry, and microbial nutrition. We find that symbiosis can significantly enhance L. monocytogenes persistence in four-species cocktail biofilms (5.71 ± 0.03 Log CFU/cm2) by up to 1.9 Log CFU/cm2 compared to monospecies biofilms (3.81 ± 0.08 Log CFU/cm2). We also report that surface topography and chemistry, microbial nutrition, and symbiont species significantly impact the symbiotic relationships involving L. monocytogenes, revealing the adaptability of bacterial symbiosis to changing environmental conditions and the complex nature of cocktail pathogen biofilms. Antagonistic and synergistic interactions involving pathogens in cocktail biofilms, and factors affecting those interactions, are elucidated and can establish a foundation to study symbiosis and its role in mitigating pathogen persistence in food systems, and helping identify unanticipated increased food safety risks of pathogens due to enhanced persistence.
AB - The foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) can form very persistent biofilms on food contact substances, either in monospecies, or in conjunction with background microflora. Although some studies have investigated how bacterial symbiosis facilitates L. monocytogenes survival in complex cocktail biofilms, very little is known about how this core symbiotic relationship is affected by environmental factors. Here, we investigate how L. monocytogenes persistence is affected by symbiosis with Escherichia coli O157:H7, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Ralstonia insidiosa, and how these relationships are impacted by environmental factors, including food contact surface topography and chemistry, and microbial nutrition. We find that symbiosis can significantly enhance L. monocytogenes persistence in four-species cocktail biofilms (5.71 ± 0.03 Log CFU/cm2) by up to 1.9 Log CFU/cm2 compared to monospecies biofilms (3.81 ± 0.08 Log CFU/cm2). We also report that surface topography and chemistry, microbial nutrition, and symbiont species significantly impact the symbiotic relationships involving L. monocytogenes, revealing the adaptability of bacterial symbiosis to changing environmental conditions and the complex nature of cocktail pathogen biofilms. Antagonistic and synergistic interactions involving pathogens in cocktail biofilms, and factors affecting those interactions, are elucidated and can establish a foundation to study symbiosis and its role in mitigating pathogen persistence in food systems, and helping identify unanticipated increased food safety risks of pathogens due to enhanced persistence.
KW - Biofilm
KW - Cocktail
KW - Food contact substance
KW - Listeria monocytogenes
KW - Symbiosis
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U2 - 10.1016/j.foodcont.2024.110391
DO - 10.1016/j.foodcont.2024.110391
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85186973551
SN - 0956-7135
VL - 161
JO - Food Control
JF - Food Control
M1 - 110391
ER -