Prediction of in situ metabolism of photobacteria in modified atmosphere packaged poultry meat using metatranscriptomic data

Publication date: Available online 8 March 2019Source: Microbiological ResearchAuthor(s): Linda Höll, Maik Hilgarth, Andreas J. Geissler, Jürgen Behr, Rudi F. VogelAbstractModified atmosphere packaging (MAP) is widely used in food industry to extend the microbiological shelf life of meat. Common CO2-containing gas atmospheres for poultry meat packaging are either nearly O2-free or high O2 MAPs. In this work, we compared spoilage microbiota of skinless chicken breast in CO2/O2 (30/70%) and CO2/N2 (30/70%) MAP, which are culturable with conventional methods and identified isolates by MALDI-TOF MS. These data were compared to metatranscriptome sequencing enabling a culture-independent overview on the composition of microbiota at species level. While typical MAP meat spoilers were confirmed in the transcriptomic approach, we also found high numbers of transcripts mapping to Photobacterium spp. sequences in these samples. As photobacteria were recently shown to occur in different MAP and vacuum packaged meats, we used the respective part of the metatranscriptomic data for prediction of Photobacterium spp. major metabolic routes in situ, upon growth in MAP poultry meat. It is predicted that they employ similar metabolism in both atmospheres: In the lack of carbohydrates upon meat spoilage, the pyruvate pool is filled via glycerol originating from lipolysis and amino acid conversions. From the pyruvate pool, gluconeogenesis is fed enabling cell wall biosynthesis and growth as well...
Source: Microbiological Research - Category: Infectious Diseases Source Type: research