Chapter 6. Omics for the Investigation of Bacteriophages in Foodborne Bacteria

Abstract

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect bacteria that can be found in foods, food preparation surfaces and the environment as virus particles or virions. Once they infect the specifically targeted bacterial cell, they can enter the lysogenic state, integrating into the genome of the host, or produce new phages that cause the lysis of the cell, releasing the new phages. Lytic or lysogenic phages can be detected in different manners. Lytic phages can be isolated and amplified in the specific host and analyzed by different techniques, such as electron microscopy, genomic or proteomic methodologies. Lysogenic phages are usually identified by analyzing the bacterial genome by means of genomic or proteomic methodologies. The use of omic methodologies, bioinformatic tools and specialized platforms will keep continuously transforming knowledge of the plasticity of foodborne pathogenic bacteria and their lytic and lysogenic phages, their inter-relationships and intra-relationships and the interactions with the surrounding environment, conferring the ability to create new tools for fast and accurate detection and typing and subtyping of problematic spoilage and pathogenic foodborne strains.