Intraspecific variability in heat resistance of fungal conidia

TY - JOUR

T1 - Intraspecific variability in heat resistance of fungal conidia

AU - van den Brule, Tom

AU - Punt, Maarten

AU - Seekles, Sjoerd J

AU - Segers, Frank J J

AU - Houbraken, Jos

AU - Hazeleger, Wilma C

AU - Ram, Arthur F J

AU - Wösten, Han A B

AU - Zwietering, Marcel H

AU - Dijksterhuis, Jan

AU - den Besten, Heidy M W

N1 - Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - Microbial species are inherently variable, which is reflected in intraspecies genotypic and phenotypic differences. Strain-to-strain variation gives rise to variability in stress resistance and plays a crucial role in food safety and food quality. Here, strain variability in heat resistance of asexual spores (conidia) of the fungal species Aspergillus niger, Penicillium roqueforti and Paecilomyces variotii was quantified and compared to bacterial variability found in the literature. After heat treatment, a 5.4- to 8.6-fold difference in inactivation rate was found between individual strains within each species, while the strain variability of the three fungal species was not statistically different. We evaluated whether the degree of intraspecies variability is uniform, not only within the fungal kingdom, but also amongst different bacterial species. Comparison with three spore-forming bacteria and two non-spore-forming bacteria revealed that the variability of the different species was indeed in the same order of magnitude, which hints to a microbial signature of variation that exceeds kingdom boundaries.

AB - Microbial species are inherently variable, which is reflected in intraspecies genotypic and phenotypic differences. Strain-to-strain variation gives rise to variability in stress resistance and plays a crucial role in food safety and food quality. Here, strain variability in heat resistance of asexual spores (conidia) of the fungal species Aspergillus niger, Penicillium roqueforti and Paecilomyces variotii was quantified and compared to bacterial variability found in the literature. After heat treatment, a 5.4- to 8.6-fold difference in inactivation rate was found between individual strains within each species, while the strain variability of the three fungal species was not statistically different. We evaluated whether the degree of intraspecies variability is uniform, not only within the fungal kingdom, but also amongst different bacterial species. Comparison with three spore-forming bacteria and two non-spore-forming bacteria revealed that the variability of the different species was indeed in the same order of magnitude, which hints to a microbial signature of variation that exceeds kingdom boundaries.

KW - Aspergillus niger

KW - Bacteria

KW - Food Microbiology

KW - Food Safety

KW - Hot Temperature

KW - Spores, Fungal

U2 - 10.1016/j.foodres.2022.111302

DO - 10.1016/j.foodres.2022.111302

M3 - Article

C2 - 35651062

SN - 0963-9969

VL - 156

SP - 111302

JO - Food Research International

JF - Food Research International

ER -