Listeria monocytogenes colonises established multispecies biofilms and resides within them without altering biofilm composition or gene expression.

Listeria (L.) monocytogenes can survive for extended periods in the food producing environment. Here, biofilms possibly provide a niche for long-term survival due to their protective nature against environmental fluctuations and disinfectants.

Microbial community structure of plant-based meat alternatives.

A reduction in animal-based diets has driven market demand for alternative meat products, currently raising a new generation of plant-based meat alternatives (PBMAs). It remains unclear whether these substitutes are a short-lived trend or become established in the long term. Over the last few years, the trend of increasing sales and diversifying product range has continued, but publication activities in this field are currently limited mainly to market research and food technology topics.

From diversity to complexity: Microbial networks in soils.

Network analysis has been used for many years in ecological research to analyze organismal associations, for example in food webs, plant-plant or plant-animal interactions. Although network analysis is widely applied in microbial ecology, only recently has it entered the realms of soil microbial ecology, shown by a rapid rise in studies applying co-occurrence analysis to soil microbial communities. While this application offers great potential for deeper insights into the ecological structure of soil microbial ecosystems, it also brings new challenges related to the specific characteristics of soil datasets and the type of ecological questions that can be addressed.

The Transcriptional Response of Soil Bacteria to Long-Term Warming and Short-Term Seasonal Fluctuations in a Terrestrial Forest.

Terrestrial ecosystems are an important carbon store, and this carbon is vulnerable to microbial degradation with climate warming. After 30 years of experimental warming, carbon stocks in a temperate mixed deciduous forest were observed to be reduced by 30% in the heated plots relative to the controls. In addition, soil respiration was seasonal, as was the warming treatment effect.