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Quantification of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in different foods using rRNA-targeted
Nabil Ben Omar1, Araceli Castro, Hikmate Abriouel
1Area de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad de Jaén, 23071 Jaén, Spain.
Journal of Microbiological Methods
|February 22, 2005
Summary
Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium are minor components of the microflora in Spanish foods. Quantitative analysis using oligonucleotide probes revealed their low abundance, suggesting they represent less than 0.5% of active microbes in tested food products.
Area of Science:
- Food microbiology
- Molecular biology
- Microbial ecology
Background:
- Enterococci, including Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium, are bacteria found in various environments.
- Understanding their prevalence in food is crucial for food safety and quality assessment.
- Accurate quantification methods are needed to determine their role in food microflora.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the abundance of Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium in diverse Spanish food products.
- To develop and validate methods for RNA extraction and quantification of target enterococci species.
- To determine the proportion of these enterococci within the overall active microflora of the food samples.
Main Methods:
- Development of two RNA extraction methods for food matrices.
- Utilization of taxon-specific oligonucleotide probes (DB6 for E. faecium, DB8 for E. faecalis) targeting extracted rRNA.
- Quantitative analysis of enterococcal species in various Spanish food samples.
Main Results:
- Successful development of two RNA extraction methods, with Method 1 recommended for its general applicability.
- Enterococcus faecalis and Enterococcus faecium were found to constitute less than 0.5% of the active microflora across all tested food samples.
- The yield and purity of extracted RNA were dependent on the food type.
Conclusions:
- Enterococci, specifically E. faecalis and E. faecium, are present in low numbers in the analyzed Spanish foods.
- These species appear to be a minor component of the overall active microbial communities in these food products.
- The developed molecular methods provide a reliable approach for quantifying specific bacterial species in complex food matrices.