<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p><italic>Listeria monocytogenes</italic> is one of the most dangerous food-borne pathogens and is responsible for human listeriosis, a severe disease with a high mortality rate, especially among the elderly, pregnant women and newborns. Therefore, this bacterium has an important impact on food safety and public health. It is able to survive and even grow in a temperature range from -0.4°C to 45°C, a broad pH range from 4.6 to 9.5 and at a relatively low water activity (a<sub>W</sub> &lt; 0.90), and tolerates salt content up to 20%. It is also resistant to ultraviolet light, biocides and heavy metals and forms biofilm structures on a variety of surfaces in food-production environments. These features make it difficult to remove and allow it to persist for a long time, increasing the risk of contamination of food-production facilities and ultimately of food. In the present review, the key mechanisms of the pathogen’s survival and stress adaptation have been presented. This information may grant better understanding of bacterial adaptation to food environmental conditions.</p>
</abstract>

Listeria monocytogenes is one of the most dangerous food-borne pathogens and is responsible for human listeriosis, a severe disease with a high mortality rate, especially among the elderly, pregnant women and newborns. Therefore, this bacterium has an important impact on food safety and public health. It is able to survive and even grow in a temperature range from -0.4°C to 45°C, a broad pH range from 4.6 to 9.5 and at a relatively low water activity (aW < 0.90), and tolerates salt content up to 20%. It is also resistant to ultraviolet light, biocides and heavy metals and forms biofilm structures on a variety of surfaces in food-production environments. These features make it difficult to remove and allow it to persist for a long time, increasing the risk of contamination of food-production facilities and ultimately of food. In the present review, the key mechanisms of the pathogen’s survival and stress adaptation have been presented. This information may grant better understanding of bacterial adaptation to food environmental conditions.

Why does <italic>Listeria monocytogenes</italic> survive in food and food-production environments?

Journal of Veterinary Research

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Why does  survive in food and food-production environments?

Listeria monocytogenes is one of the most dangerous food-borne pathogens and is responsible for human listeriosis, a severe disease with a high mortality rate,...

Stress factor	Gene marker	Gene product	Phenotypic effect	References
Biocides	bcrABC cassette	resistance protein transporters and transcriptional factor	resistance to benzalkonium chloride	7, 14
Biocides	mdrL and lde	endogenous efflux pumps	resistance to benzalkonium chloride	2, 5
Low temperature	gbu	glycine betaine transporter	survival and growth at low	20
	opuC	transport of carnitine	temperatures	20
	sigB	sigma factor protein σ^B	response to temperature downshift	34
	cspA	cold-shock domain family proteins	chaperone that facilitates growth at low temperatures	38
High temperature	grpE, dnaK, dnaJ, groEL, clpP, clpE	heat-shock proteins	stabilisation and repair partially denatured proteins	1, 50
Adverse pH	gadA, gadT	glutamate decarboxylase system	conversion of glutamate to neutral γ-aminobutyrate	3, 42
Adverse pH	arcABCD	arginine deiminase	conversion of arginine to ornithine	1, 50
Osmolarity	kdpABC, lmoO993	transporter system	restoration turgor pressure and cell volume	12, 16, 48
High pressure	sigB	sigma factor protein σ^B	inhibition of cell membrane permeability and protein disruption	13, 48
Ultraviolet light	sigB	sigma factor protein σ^B	increased ultraviolet light tolerance	8
Ultraviolet light	uvrX, uvrA	Y-family DNA polymerase	increased ultraviolet light tolerance	9, 19
Heavy metals	cadABC, arsABCD, lgi-2	efflux P-type ATPase pumps and membrane transporters	increased resistance to cadmium and arsenic	25, 41

Why does Listeria monocytogenes survive in food and food-production environments?

Article Category: REVIEW ARTICLE

Online veröffentlicht: 19. Dez. 2023

Seitenbereich: 537 - 544

Eingereicht: 26. Juli 2023

Akzeptiert: 28. Nov. 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2023-0068

Schlüsselwörter
food, food environments, food safety, molecular mechanisms

© 2023 Jacek Osek et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The gene markers associated with resistance of Listeria monocytogenes to stress conditions

Why does Listeria monocytogenes survive in food and food-production environments?

Article Category: REVIEW ARTICLE

Online veröffentlicht: 19. Dez. 2023

Seitenbereich: 537 - 544

Eingereicht: 26. Juli 2023

Akzeptiert: 28. Nov. 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2023-0068

Schlüsselwörterfood, food environments, food safety, molecular mechanisms

© 2023 Jacek Osek et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

The gene markers associated with resistance of Listeria monocytogenes to stress conditions

Schlüsselwörter
food, food environments, food safety, molecular mechanisms