Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water
Foods consumed raw, such as lettuce, can host food-borne human-pathogenic bacteria. In the worst-case, these diseases cause to death. To limit illness and industrial losses, one innovative sanitation method is non-thermal plasma, which offers an extremely efficient reduction of living microbial biom...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-01-01
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| Series: | Foods |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/13/2/282 |
| _version_ | 1797339896437800960 |
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| author | Hauke Winter Robert Wagner Jörg Ehlbeck Tim Urich Uta Schnabel |
| author_facet | Hauke Winter Robert Wagner Jörg Ehlbeck Tim Urich Uta Schnabel |
| author_sort | Hauke Winter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Foods consumed raw, such as lettuce, can host food-borne human-pathogenic bacteria. In the worst-case, these diseases cause to death. To limit illness and industrial losses, one innovative sanitation method is non-thermal plasma, which offers an extremely efficient reduction of living microbial biomass. Unfortunately, the total viable count (TVC), one of the most common methods for quantifying antimicrobial effects, provides no detailed insights into the composition of the surviving microbial community after treatment. To address this information gap, different special agars were used to investigate the reduction efficiency of plasma-treated water (PTW) on different native cultivable microorganisms. All tested cultivable microbial groups were reduced using PTW. Gram-negative bacteria showed a reduction of 3.81 log<sub>10</sub>, and Gram-positive bacteria showed a reduction of 3.49 log<sub>10</sub>. Fungi were reduced by 3.89 log<sub>10</sub>. These results were further validated using a live/dead assay. MALDI-ToF (matrix-assisted laser-desorption-ionization time-of-flight)-based determination was used for a diversified overview. The results demonstrated that Gram-negative bacteria were strongly reduced. Interestingly, Gram-positive bacteria and fungi were reduced by nearly equal amounts, but could still recover from PTW treatment. MALDI-ToF mainly identified <i>Pseudomonas</i> spp. and groups of <i>Bacillus</i> on the tested lettuce. These results indicate that the PTW treatment could efficiently achieve a ubiquitous, spectrum-wide reduction of microbial life. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T09:55:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b759eb60dbd54b9a86b75ead9519a3b4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2304-8158 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T09:55:10Z |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Foods |
| spelling | doaj.art-b759eb60dbd54b9a86b75ead9519a3b42024-01-29T13:52:25ZengMDPI AGFoods2304-81582024-01-0113228210.3390/foods13020282Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated WaterHauke Winter0Robert Wagner1Jörg Ehlbeck2Tim Urich3Uta Schnabel4Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), Felix-Hausdorff-Strasse 2, 17489 Greifswald, GermanyLeibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), Felix-Hausdorff-Strasse 2, 17489 Greifswald, GermanyLeibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), Felix-Hausdorff-Strasse 2, 17489 Greifswald, GermanyInstitute of Microbiology, Center for Functional Genomics of Microbes, University of Greifswald, 17489 Greifswald, GermanyLeibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), Felix-Hausdorff-Strasse 2, 17489 Greifswald, GermanyFoods consumed raw, such as lettuce, can host food-borne human-pathogenic bacteria. In the worst-case, these diseases cause to death. To limit illness and industrial losses, one innovative sanitation method is non-thermal plasma, which offers an extremely efficient reduction of living microbial biomass. Unfortunately, the total viable count (TVC), one of the most common methods for quantifying antimicrobial effects, provides no detailed insights into the composition of the surviving microbial community after treatment. To address this information gap, different special agars were used to investigate the reduction efficiency of plasma-treated water (PTW) on different native cultivable microorganisms. All tested cultivable microbial groups were reduced using PTW. Gram-negative bacteria showed a reduction of 3.81 log<sub>10</sub>, and Gram-positive bacteria showed a reduction of 3.49 log<sub>10</sub>. Fungi were reduced by 3.89 log<sub>10</sub>. These results were further validated using a live/dead assay. MALDI-ToF (matrix-assisted laser-desorption-ionization time-of-flight)-based determination was used for a diversified overview. The results demonstrated that Gram-negative bacteria were strongly reduced. Interestingly, Gram-positive bacteria and fungi were reduced by nearly equal amounts, but could still recover from PTW treatment. MALDI-ToF mainly identified <i>Pseudomonas</i> spp. and groups of <i>Bacillus</i> on the tested lettuce. These results indicate that the PTW treatment could efficiently achieve a ubiquitous, spectrum-wide reduction of microbial life.https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/13/2/282lettucemicrobial communityphysical plasmamicrowave-driven plasmaGram-positive bacteriaGram-negative bacteria |
| spellingShingle | Hauke Winter Robert Wagner Jörg Ehlbeck Tim Urich Uta Schnabel Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water Foods lettuce microbial community physical plasma microwave-driven plasma Gram-positive bacteria Gram-negative bacteria |
| title | Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water |
| title_full | Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water |
| title_fullStr | Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water |
| title_full_unstemmed | Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water |
| title_short | Deep Impact: Shifts of Native Cultivable Microbial Communities on Fresh Lettuce after Treatment with Plasma-Treated Water |
| title_sort | deep impact shifts of native cultivable microbial communities on fresh lettuce after treatment with plasma treated water |
| topic | lettuce microbial community physical plasma microwave-driven plasma Gram-positive bacteria Gram-negative bacteria |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2304-8158/13/2/282 |
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