Isolation and Characterization of Antimicrobial Peptides Isolated from Fagonia bruguieri.

The majority of pathogenic microorganisms have developed resistance to commercial antibiotics. It causes the risk of illness relapse with current antimicrobial therapy regimens; additional and/or different antibacterial drugs are needed to treat diseases caused by these pathogenic microorganisms. The applied analysis in the present study was purification and characterization of plant peptides isolated from the leaves of Fagonia bruguieri as well as their antibacterial activities against Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, in addition to Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The minimum inhibitory concentration for the isolated peptide ranges from 25 to 62.5 mg/mL. The methanolic solvent was used for the extraction followed by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography for purification of peptides. Eventually, the peptide characterization and identification were also determined by MALDI-TOF/TOF and SEM analysis. This study paves a way to the effective antimicrobials from the plant resources.

Assessing the Performance of a Real-Time Total Adenylate (ATP+ADP+AMP) Detection Assay for Surface Hygiene Monitoring in Food Manufacturing Plants and Commercial Kitchens.

ABSTRACT: Environmental hygiene monitoring in the food processing environment has become important in current food safety programs to ensure safe food production. However, conventional monitoring of surface hygiene based on visual inspection and microbial counts is slow, tedious, and thus unable to support the current risk-based management system. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the performance of a real-time total adenylate assay that detected ATP+ADP+AMP (A3) for food contact surface hygiene in 13 food processing plants and two commercial kitchens in Malaysia. The A3 value was compared with the microbial count (aerobic plate count [APC]) on food contact surfaces. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to assess the reliability of the data and to determine the optimal threshold value for hygiene indication of food contact surfaces. Overall, the A3 value demonstrated a weak positive relationship with APC. However, the A3 value significantly correlated with APC for food processing environments associated with raw meat and raw food ingredients such as fruit that harbor a high microbial load. ROC analysis suggested an optimal threshold for the A3 value of 500 relative light units to balance the sensitivity and specificity at 0.728 and 0.719, respectively. The A3 assay as a hygiene indicator for food contact surfaces had an efficiency of 72.1%, indicating its reliability as a general hygiene indicator.

The use of next generation sequencing for improving food safety: Translation into practice.

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) combined with powerful bioinformatic approaches are revolutionising food microbiology. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) of single isolates allows the most detailed comparison possible hitherto of individual strains. The two principle approaches for strain discrimination, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis and genomic multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) are showing concordant results for phylogenetic clustering and are complementary to each other. Metabarcoding and metagenomics, applied to total DNA isolated from either food materials or the production environment, allows the identification of complete microbial populations. Metagenomics identifies the entire gene content and when coupled to transcriptomics or proteomics, allows the identification of functional capacity and biochemical activity of microbial populations. The focus of this review is on the recent use and future potential of NGS in food microbiology and on current challenges. Guidance is provided for new users, such as public health departments and the food industry, on the implementation of NGS and how to critically interpret results and place them in a broader context. The review aims to promote the broader application of NGS technologies within the food industry as well as highlight knowledge gaps and novel applications of NGS with the aim of driving future research and increasing food safety outputs from its wider use.

Antibacterial evaluation of some Schiff bases derived from 2-acetylpyridine and their metal complexes.

A series of Schiff bases derived from 2-acetylpyridne and their metal complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, NMR, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectral studies. The complexes were screened for anti-bacterial activity against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Acinetobacter baumanni (AC), Klebsiella pneumonie (KB) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) using the disc diffusion and micro broth dilution assays. Based on the overall results, the complexes showed the highest activities against MRSA while a weak antibacterial activity was observed against A. baumanii and P. aeruginosa.