A summary of the main themes and findings presented at the ASM Intermountain Branch meeting (2024).

The annual meeting for the Intermountain Branch was held in April 2024 on the campus of Brigham Young University. There were 127 branch members from Utah, Idaho, and Nevada who attended the meeting and were composed of undergraduate students, graduate or medical students, and faculty. This report highlights the diversity of, and the emerging trends in, the research conducted by American Society for Microbiology members in the Intermountain Branch.

Invited review: Review of taxonomic changes in dairy-related lactobacilli.

The genus Lactobacillus has represented an extremely large and diverse collection of bacteria that populate a wide range of habitats, and which may have industrial applications. Researchers have grappled with the immense genetic, metabolic, and ecological diversity within the genus Lactobacillus for many years. As a result, the taxonomy of lactobacilli has been extensively revised, incorporating new genus names for many lactobacilli based on their characteristics including genomic similarities.

Gluconate metabolism and gas production by Paucilactobacillus wasatchensis WDC04.

Paucilactobacillus wasatchensis, a nonstarter lactic acid bacteria, can cause late gas production and splits and cracks in aging cheese when it metabolizes 6-carbon substrates, particularly galactose, to a 5-carbon sugar, resulting in the release of CO. Previous studies have not explained late gas production in aging cheese when no galactose is present. Based on the genome sequence of Pa.

Hot topic: Geographical distribution and strain diversity of Lactobacillus wasatchensis isolated from cheese with unwanted gas formation.

Lactobacillus wasatchensis, an obligate heterofermentative nonstarter lactic acid bacteria (NSLAB) implicated in causing gas defects in aged cheeses, was originally isolated from an aged Cheddar produced in Logan, Utah. To determine the geographical distribution of this organism, we isolated slow-growing NSLAB from cheeses collected in different regions of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. Seven of the cheeses showed significant gas defects and 12 did not.

Lactobacillus wasatchensis sp. nov., a non-starter lactic acid bacteria isolated from aged Cheddar cheese.

A Gram-stain positive, rod-shaped, non-spore-forming strain (WDC04T), which may be associated with late gas production in cheese, was isolated from aged Cheddar cheese following incubation on MRS agar (pH 5.2) at 6 °C for 35 days. Strain WDC04T had 97 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with Lactobacillus hokkaidonensis DSM 26202T, Lactobacillus oligofermentans 533, 'Lactobacillus danicus' 9M3, Lactobacillus suebicus CCUG 32233T and Lactobacillus vaccinostercus DSM 20634T.

Sequence and structural characterization of great salt lake bacteriophage CW02, a member of the T7-like supergroup.

Halophage CW02 infects a Salinivibrio costicola-like bacterium, SA50, isolated from the Great Salt Lake. Following isolation, cultivation, and purification, CW02 was characterized by DNA sequencing, mass spectrometry, and electron microscopy. A conserved module of structural genes places CW02 in the T7 supergroup, members of which are found in diverse aquatic environments, including marine and freshwater ecosystems.