Matters Microbial #139: How Listeria Gets By With a Little Help From Its Friends

Today Dr. Jasna Kovac, Huck Chair in Microbiomes in Food Safety and Associate Professor of Food Science at Penn State University (and active member of Penn State's One Health Microbiome Center) joins the quality quorum to discuss how understanding the microbiome in food processing facilities can help reduce the incidence of food borne illnesses, including Listeria.

Host: Mark O. Martin

Guest: Jasna Kovac

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• Here is an overview of Listeria as a microbe.
• Here is an overview of Listeria pathogenesis.
• A video showing "actin rockets" moving Listeria around inside of a eukaryotic cell. 
• Overview from the CDC regarding Listeria.
• Prior #MattersMicrobial podcast about Listeria by Dr. Lisa Gorski.
• An overview of microbial food safety issues.
• Description of the cantaloupe associated Listeria outbreak.
• Description of the caramel apple Listeria outbreak.
• An overview of whole genome sequencing as a diagnostic tool.
• A video description of MIC (minimal inhibitory concentration) relationship between microbes and antimicrobials.
•  An overview of biofilms.
• A prior #MattersMicrobial podcast about biofilms with Dr. Matthew Fields.
• The One Health Concept linking many aspects of everyday life to microbiology.
• A description of Sanger 16S rRNA sequencing.
• An overview of MPN (most probably number) analysis in microbiology.
• A video describing the very useful LIVE/DEAD dye approach in microbiology.
• Microbiology and sanitizers.
• An overview of EPS (extracellular polysaccharides).
• Description of SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms).
• An overview of the lineages of Listeria.
• A description of Dr. Kovac's approach to precision food safety.
• A nice description of Dr. Kovac's evaluation of tree fruit processing plants described in this podcast.
• A wonderful video presentation by Dr. Kovac.
• Dr. Kovac's academic website.
• The research laboratory website for Dr. Kovac and colleagues.

Intro music is by Reber Clark

Send your questions and comments to mattersmicrobial@gmail.com