Mechanism of spore germination and its inhibition by natural antimicrobial compounds in psychrotrophic Clostridium botulinum

Innovations in the formulation, packaging, processing and preservation of minimally processed chilled foods require adequate measures to control psychrotrophic Clostridium botulinum (group II), the major pathogen of concern in these foods. However, this organism has received little attention by food researchers in the past two decades because of biosafety and biosecurity issues and because of the strict anaerobic culture conditions it requires. In this research project, the mechanisms of spore germination of group II C. botulinum (gIICb) will be investigated using several complementary genetic approaches, most of which need to be customized for use in C. botulinum for the first time. A nontoxigenic deletion mutant constructed previously in our laboratory will be used for this work. Additionally, natural inhibitors of spore germination from plant essential oils will be identified and their mode of action investigated to provide additional insights in the spore germination process. The insights in spore germination and its inhibition that will result from this work are important to support the rational development of safe innovative processes and products and of a legislative framework related to novel chilled foods.