Microbiol. Res., Volume 11, Issue 2 (December 2020) – 5 articles

The term ‘packaging’ refers to the technological intervention aimed at the protection of food from a variety of factors, which provokes the product detriment. Packaging is considered as one of the most interesting technological aspects and a constantly evolving issue in food production. This paper aims at the evaluation of the properties of packaging currently used in the meat industry and analyses the advantages, the disadvantages and the microbiota involved. Packaging is a coordinated system, which prepares the products for transportation, distribution, storage, marketing and consumption. Even if several packaging alternatives are proposed, the common purpose is to guarantee high standards, yet maintaining the required characteristics as long as possible. Meat is a dynamic system with a limited shelf-life and the nutritional and sensory properties may change during storage due to microbial activity and physical or chemical changes. Microbial spoilage, for instance, determines an impact in meat, producing unattractive odours, flavours, discolouration, gas and slime. Full article

Understanding the different factors shaping the spatial and temporal distribution of marine microorganisms is fundamental in predicting their responses to future environmental disturbances. There has been, however, little effort to characterize the microbial diversity including the microbiome dynamics among regions in the Caribbean Sea. Toward this end, this study was designed to gain some critical insights into microbial diversity within the coastal marine ecosystem off the coast of Puerto Rico. Using Illumina MiSeq, the V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced with the goal of characterizing the microbial diversity representative of different coastal sites around the island of Puerto Rico. This study provided valuable insights in terms of the local bacterial taxonomic abundance, α and β diversity, and the environmental factors shaping microbial community composition and structure. The most dominant phyla across all 11 sampling sites were the Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Planctomycetes, while the least dominant taxonomic groups were the NKB19, Tenericutes, OP3, Lentisphaerae, and SAR406. The geographical area (Caribbean and Atlantic seas) and salinity gradients were the main drivers shaping the marine microbial community around the island. Despite stable physical and chemical features of the different sites, a highly dynamic microbiome was observed. This highlights Caribbean waters as one of the richest marine sources for a microbial biodiversity hotspot. The data presented here provide a basis for further temporal evaluations aiming at deciphering microbial taxonomic diversity around the island, while determining how microbes adapt to changes in the climate. Full article

Enteroviruses are a public health threat due to the high incidence of infections and potential for serious illness or death. Some laboratories in high-income countries detect enteroviruses in water by integrating cell culture and PCR (ICC/PCR). This combined method carries a high financial burden, due in part to specialized cell culture equipment. Therefore, we expanded upon a pilot study to reduce the cost by using common laboratory polypropylene tubes to create a cell culture in suspension. We optimized the protocol by determining minimal incubation periods post-infection as a function of the initial virus concentration. Cells in suspension and traditional monolayers were inoculated with poliovirus and incubated in 8-hour intervals up to 48 hours prior to extraction. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to detect viral nucleic acid targets. Treated and raw water samples were seeded with virus and the suspension ICC/qPCR protocol used to ascertain whether the protocol performed similar to directly seeding cells. No variation in virus detection occurred using the suspension ICC/qPCR or monolayer ICC/qPCR (p = 0.95). In surface water samples, viral nucleic acid was successfully detected, with no significant increase after 32 h (p > 0.05). Suspension ICC/qPCR is as effective as monolayer ICC/qPCR in detecting enteroviruses in surface waters. Materials used in the suspension ICC/qPCR have a lower monetary cost than traditional cell culture materials without loss of sensitivity. More accessible testing of waters for enterovirus contamination through cost reduction has the potential to reduce human exposure and disease. Full article