Endospores of Bacillus spp., especially Bacillus subtilis, have served as experimental models for exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying the incredible longevity of spores and their resistance to environmental insults. In this review we summarize the molecular laboratory model of spore resistance mechanisms and attempt to use the model as a basis for exploration of the resistance of spores to environmental extremes both on Earth and during postulated interplanetary transfer through space as a result of natural impact processes.

/pdf/resistance-of-bacillus-endospores-to-extreme-terrestrial-and-2qp3zxqicl.pdf

Resistance of Bacillus endospores to extreme terrestrial and extraterrestrial environments.

http://www.uco.es/zootecniaygestion/img/pictorex/10_10_27_ATT00013.pdf

Mechanisms of water-holding capacity of meat: The role of postmortem biochemical and structural changes.

Listeria monocytogenes is a Gram positive, aerobic, facultative anaerobic and nonacid fast bacterium, which can cause the disease listeriosis in both human and animals. It is widely distributed thoroughout the environment and has been isolated from various plant and animal food products associated with listeriosis outbreaks.

Contaminated ready-to-eat food products such as gravad and cold-smoked salmon and rainbow trout have been associated with human listeriosis in Sweden. The aim of this study was to analyse the occurrence and level of L. monocytogenes in
gravad and cold-smoked salmon (Salmo salar) products packed under vacuum or modified atmosphere from retail outlets in Sweden. Isolated strains were characterized by serotyping and the diversity of the strains within and between
producers were determined with PFGE (Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis). The characterized fish isolates were compared with previously characterized human strains.
L. monocytogenes was isolated from 11 (three manufacturers) of 56 products analysed. This included gravad salmon products from three manufacturers and cold-smoked salmon from one manufacturer. The highest level of L. monocytogenes found was 1500 cfu/g from a cold-smoked salmon product but the level was low (<100 cfu/g) in most of the products. Serovar 1/2a was predominant,
followed by 4b. Three products of gravad salmon harboured more than one serovar. PFGE typing of the 56 salmon isolates detected five Asc I types: four types were identical to human clinical strains with Asc I and one was identical and one was closely related to human clinical strains with Apa I. Isolation of identical or closely related L. monocytogenes strains from human clinical cases of listeriosis and gravad and cold-smoked salmon suggested that these kinds of products are possible sources of listeriosis in Sweden. Therefore, these products should be considered risk products for human listeriosis.

Listeria monocytogenes, a food-borne pathogen

http://sgpwe.izt.uam.mx/files/users/uami/acym/Enterococos_en_alimentos_y_salud-2006.pdf

The role and application of enterococci in food and health.

Inorganic polyphosphate (poly P) is a chain of tens or many hundreds of phosphate (Pi) residues linked by high-energy phosphoanhydride bonds. Despite inorganic polyphosphate's ubiquity--found in every cell in nature and likely conserved from prebiotic times--this polymer has been given scant attention. Among the reasons for this neglect of poly P have been the lack of sensitive, definitive, and facile analytical methods to assess its concentration in biological sources and the consequent lack of demonstrably important physiological functions. This review focuses on recent advances made possible by the introduction of novel, enzymatically based assays. The isolation and ready availability of Escherichia coli polyphosphate kinase (PPK) that can convert poly P and ADP to ATP and of a yeast exopolyphosphatase that can hydrolyze poly P to Pi, provide highly specific, sensitive, and facile assays adaptable to a high-throughput format. Beyond the reagents afforded by the use of these enzymes, their genes, when identified, mutated, and overexpressed, have offered insights into the physiological functions of poly P. Most notably, studies in E. coli reveal large accumulations of poly P in cellular responses to deficiencies in an amino acid, Pi, or nitrogen or to the stresses of a nutrient downshift or high salt. The ppk mutant, lacking PPK and thus severely deficient in poly P, also fails to express RpoS (a sigma factor for RNA polymerase), the regulatory protein that governs > or = 50 genes responsible for stationary-phase adaptations to resist starvation, heat and oxidant stresses, UV irradiation, etc. Most dramatically, ppk mutants die after only a few days in stationary phase. The high degree of homology of the PPK sequence in many bacteria, including some of the major pathogenic species (e.g. Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Neisseria meningitidis, Helicobacter pylori, Vibrio cholerae, Salmonella typhimurium, Shigella flexneri, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bordetella pertussis, and Yersinia pestis), has prompted the knockout of their ppk gene to determine the dependence of virulence on poly P and the potential of PPK as a target for antimicrobial drugs. In yeast and mammalian cells, exo- and endopolyphosphatases have been identified and isolated, but little is known about the synthesis of poly P or its physiologic functions. Whether microbe or human, all species depend on adaptations in the stationary phase, which is truly a dynamic phase of life. Most research is focused on the early and reproductive phases of organisms, which are rather brief intervals of rapid growth. More attention needs to be given to the extensive period of maturity. Survival of microbial species depends on being able to manage in the stationary phase. In view of the universality and complexity of basic biochemical mechanisms, it would be surprising if some of the variety of poly P functions observed in microorganisms did not apply to aspects of human growth and development, to aging, and to the aberrations of disease. Of theoretical interest regarding poly P is its antiquity in prebiotic evolution, which along with its high energy and phosphate content, make it a plausible precursor to RNA, DNA, and proteins. Practical interest in poly P includes many industrial applications, among which is the microbial removal of Pi in aquatic environments.

Inorganic polyphosphate: a molecule of many functions.

Postmortem (PM) and mu-calpain-induced degradation of specific skeletal muscle proteins was monitored by SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. Samples were removed from bovine longissimus thoracis (LT) at approximately 45 min PM for the preparation of at-death (0-d) myofibrils (MF). The LT was excised at 1 d PM, vacuum-packaged, and stored at 2 degrees C. Samples were removed for Warner-Bratzler shear force analysis and biochemical analysis at 1, 3, 7, 14, 28, and 56 d PM. The protease mu-calpain was purified from bovine skeletal muscle and used to digest at-death MF at pH 5.6, 4 degrees C, 100 microM CaCl2. Degradation of the proteins titin, nebulin, filamin, desmin, and troponin-T was monitored in the PM and mu-calpain-digested samples by using SDS-PAGE and Western blotting. The PM samples that had significantly lower shear force (LSF) values (P < .05) at 1 d PM exhibited faster degradation of these five proteins than the higher shear force (HSF) samples. In LSF samples, the intact titin band (T1) was absent by 7 d PM and nebulin was absent by 3 d PM. In LSF samples, some filamin was degraded by 3 d PM, but in HSF samples degradation was not apparent until 14 d PM. In LSF samples, desmin was degraded more rapidly PM than in HSF samples. Troponin-T was broken down PM to yield two major polypeptides of approximately 28 and 30 kDa; these polypeptides appeared earlier PM in LSF samples. Degradation products, similar to those observed PM, for all five proteins also were detected in Western blots of mu-calpain-digested MF, suggesting the calpain system plays a key role in PM protein degradation.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1050&context=ans_pubs

Proteolysis of specific muscle structural proteins by mu-calpain at low pH and temperature is similar to degradation in postmortem bovine muscle.

Samples were removed from bovine longissimus (L), semitendinosus (ST) and psoas major (PM) muscles at 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 10 or 13 days postmortem stored at 2°C or 25°C. Myofibril fragmentation index (MFI) and Warner-Bratzler (W-B) shear-force values were determined on steaks from each muscle. Myofibril fragmentation index (MFI) was determined quantitatively by measuring the absorbance of a myofibril suspension. It was observed that MFI increased during postmortem storage for L and ST, but increased only slightly for PM. These results paralleled those changes in myofibrils observed with phase and polarized light microscopy. Both MFI and W-B shear-force values changed greatly from 1 to 3 days postmortem with a lesser change occurring after 3 days in L and ST muscles. In PM muscle, however, only a slight change in MFI and W-B shear-force occurred during postmortem storage. Elevated storage temperature (25°C) caused an accelerated change in both MFI and W-B shear-force in L and ST muscles; however, storage temperature had little effect on PM muscle. L and ST muscles responded similarly to postmortem storage, but PM muscle was characteristically different from the L and ST muscles. These findings demonstrate the differences and similarities of muscles to postmortem storage and further elucidate the role of myofibrillar proteins in meat tenderness.

Myofibril fragmentation and shear resistance of three bovine muscles during postmortem storage

Effect of muscle type, packaging, and irradiation on lipid oxidation, volatile production, and color in raw pork patties.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1053&context=swinereports_1999

Analysis of volatile components and the sensory characteristics of irradiated raw pork

Myofibrils isolated from bovine longissimus (L), semitendinosus (ST) and psoas major (PM) muscles at-death and at 1, 2, 3, 6 and 10 days postmortem storage (2 and 25°C) were analyzed with sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. One of the subunits of troponin, troponin T, disappeared from L and ST muscle during postmortem storage at 25°C, and concurrently a 30,000 dalton component appeared. Storage of muscles at 25°C accelerated these changes in myofibrils from L and ST muscles, but SDS polyacrylamide gels of PM muscle changed little during storage at either 2 or 25°C. Crude preparations of a Ca2+-activated factor (CAF) were isolated from bovine L, ST and PM muscles. Total CAF activity was high and similar in L and ST muscles, but PM muscle contained less than half the total CAF activity of L and ST muscles. Incubation of purified CAF with myofibrils isolated from at-death muscle caused Z-disk degradation and disappearance of troponin T and the simulataneous appearance of a 30,000 dalton component. That incubation of purified CAF with purified troponin caused degradation of troponin-T to a 30,000-dalton component indicates that the 30,000-dalton component in whole myotibrils originates from troponin-T. The effects of CAF on Z-disk and troponin-T degradation and the relative total activity of CAF in L, ST and PM muscles are similar to the effects of postmortem storage in myofibril fragmentation, myotibrillar protein degradation and WB shear force values. These parallel effects indicate that the limited and. specific proteolysis of myofibrillar proteins is caused by a Ca2+-activated factor endogenous to the muscle cell.

Dennis G. Olson

Papers

Proteolysis of specific muscle structural proteins by mu-calpain at low pH and temperature is similar to degradation in postmortem bovine muscle.

Myofibril fragmentation and shear resistance of three bovine muscles during postmortem storage

Effect of muscle type, packaging, and irradiation on lipid oxidation, volatile production, and color in raw pork patties.

Analysis of volatile components and the sensory characteristics of irradiated raw pork

Effect of postmortem storage and calcium activated factor on the myofibrillar proteins of bovine skeletal muscle