Location: Environmental Microbial & Food Safety Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-32420-006-001-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2016
End Date: Aug 31, 2020
Objective:
To 1) assess the biofilm formation capacity of foodborne bacterial pathogens in fresh produce processing environments and on fresh produce surfaces; 2) identify environmental bacterial strains or species that promote multispecies biofilm formation on fresh produce or in processing environments; 3) elucidate factors controlling foodborne bacterial pathogen interactions in multi-species biofilms on fresh produce or in processing environments.
Approach:
Conventional microbiology and metagenomic approaches will be used to profile microbial communities in fresh produce growth and processing environment. Transcriptome and proteomic analyses will be applied for understanding the interactions of bacterial pathogens with environmental matrices including microbial communities.
