ON ?rep?seq as a rapid and cost?effective alternative to whole?genome sequencing for species?level identification and strain?level discrimination of Listeria monocytogenes contamination in a salmon processing plant

This study is essentially a real industry case from a salmon processing plant. TwentyListeria monocytogenes isolates were analyzed both by ON-rep-seq and WGS to identify and differentiate putativeL.monocytogenes from a routine sampling of processing equipment and products, and finally, compare the strain-level discriminatory power of ON-rep-seq to different analyzing levels delivered from the WGS data. The analyses revealed that among the isolates tested there were three different strains. The isolates of the most frequently detected strain (n = 15) were all detected in the problematic area in the processing plant. The strain level discrimination done by ON-rep-seq was in full accordance with the interpretation of WGS data. Our findings also demonstrate that ON-rep-seq may serve as a primary screening method alternative to WGS for identification and strain-level differentiation for surveillance of potential pathogens in a food-producing environment.

Source: MicrobiologyOpen - November 15, 2021 Category: Microbiology Authors: Gunn Merethe Bj ørge Thomassen, Lukasz Krych, Susanne Knøchel, Lisbeth Mehli Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research