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EXPOSURE OF LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES TO FOOD AND TEMPERATURE ABUSE USING A DIALYSIS TUBING CULTURE METHOD
Author(s) -
PANG HOANJEN,
POTENSKI CATHERINE J.,
MATTHEWS KARL R.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of food safety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.427
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1745-4565
pISSN - 0149-6085
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-4565.2007.00084.x
Subject(s) - listeria monocytogenes , groel , food science , brain heart infusion , microbiology and biotechnology , foodborne pathogen , food safety , contamination , slurry , chemistry , bacteria , biology , environmental science , gene , escherichia coli , environmental engineering , ecology , biochemistry , genetics , agar
Foodborne illnesses are often linked to foods that have been contaminated postprocessing and exposed to temperature abuse conditions prior to consumption. Limitations in methods to recover sufficient numbers of a target bacterium from an (inoculated) intentionally contaminated food can hinder genomic/proteomic analysis, and in conducting in vitro assays using the recovered cells. In this study, a dialysis tubing culture technique was developed to facilitate the recovery of high numbers of Listeria monocytogenes exposed to temperature abuse while in association with chocolate milk and frankfurter slurry. The impact of exposure to foods, followed by temperature abuse, on the virulence of L. monocytogenes was investigated using the Caco‐2 cell infection assay. The expression of groEL, associated with stress, was also determined. L. monocytogenes inoculated into brain–heart infusion (BHI) broth (control), chocolate milk or frankfurter slurry was held at 4C for 24 h to simulate short‐term exposure to each food. The L. monocytogenes‐ contaminated food was then exposed to a series of temperature shifts to simulate temperature abuse. The final temperature of the abused BHI and chocolate milk was 30C, and the frankfurter slurry was 22C. The stress response gene, groEL, was only induced in the control cells (suspended in BHI) after they had been exposed to temperature abuse conditions. The expression of groEL was also evident in cells exposed to foods and temperature abuse conditions, suggesting that the foods used in this study were a stressful environment for the cells. This study showed that the exposure of L. monocytogenes to chocolate milk or frankfurter slurry, or temperature abuse has no impact on the virulence of L. monocytogenes as demonstrated using the Caco‐2 cell assay. However, the expression of groEL suggests that the foods evaluated can be stressful environments for L. monocytogenes despite its ability to grow or survive in those foods. The dialysis tubing culture technique developed is a simple and highly cost‐effective method for exposure of bacteria to food and the recovery of a large number of cells suitable for additional analysis.