Salmonella Prevalence in Raw Cocoa Beans and a Microbiological Risk Assessment to Evaluate the Impact of Cocoa Liquor Processing on the Reduction of Salmonella.

Salmonella in raw cocoa beans (n = 870) from main sourcing areas over nine months was analyzed. It was detected in 71 (ca. 8.

PhenoLink--a web-tool for linking phenotype to ~omics data for bacteria: application to gene-trait matching for Lactobacillus plantarum strains.

Background: Linking phenotypes to high-throughput molecular biology information generated by ~omics technologies allows revealing cellular mechanisms underlying an organism's phenotype. ~Omics datasets are often very large and noisy with many features (e.g.

Phenotypic and genomic diversity of Lactobacillus plantarum strains isolated from various environmental niches.

Lactobacillus plantarum is a ubiquitous microorganism that is able to colonize several ecological niches, including vegetables, meat, dairy substrates and the gastro-intestinal tract. An extensive phenotypic and genomic diversity analysis was conducted to elucidate the molecular basis of the high flexibility and versatility of this species. First, 185 isolates from diverse environments were phenotypically characterized by evaluating their fermentation and growth characteristics.

Effect of soil sample preservation, compared to the effect of other environmental variables, on bacterial and eukaryotic diversity.

Archived soil samples are a valuable source for retrospective ecological studies, and their recent analysis using molecular ecological approaches has drawn significant attention within the scientific community. However, the possibility of addressing ecological questions regarding detectable microbiota in dried and extensively stored soils has not yet been fully evaluated. To achieve this, soil samples collected from two long-term grassland experiments in the United Kingdom and The Netherlands were subjected to air-drying at 40-42 degrees C and stored at room temperature.

16S rRNA targeted DGGE fingerprinting of microbial communities.

The past decades have seen the staggering development of molecular microbial ecology as a discipline that uses the detection of so-called biomarkers to monitor microbial communities in environment samples. A variety of molecules can be used as biomarkers, including cell-wall components, proteins, lipids, DNA or RNA. Especially, the application of small subunit ribosomal RNA (rRNA) and the corresponding genes have proven invaluable for advances in microbial ecology.