Plant-associated microbes to protect sprouts from human pathogens

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"Sprouts" are newly germinated seeds that are consumed raw or cooked. Despite nutritional benefits, sproutscan harbour human pathogens including Salmonella, Escherichia coli and Listeria. To meet health and safetyregulations, sprout growers must sanitize their seeds and carefully control growth conditions and continuallytest their seeds and products for human pathogens.This partnership is between Eatmore Sprouts & Greens Ltd., a Canadian sprout growing in Courtenay, BC,and the Haney Lab at UBC. Eatmore Sprouts would like to know if the presence of beneficial microbes on theirsprouts, either derived from seeds, or introduced during production, can protect their products from humanpathogens. Plants normally associate with a complex community of microbes (their "microbiome") that assistthem with nutrient uptake from the soil and protect them from plant pathogens. Plants acquire theirmicrobiome from both the seed (inherited from their parent) and from the soil. It is possible that removingthese microbes may leave sprouts vulnerable to colonization by poorly adapted human pathogens.Eatmore sprouts using an organic sanitation method that may have a lower impact on endogenous microbesand be more compatible with introducing beneficial microbes post sanitation than traditional chlorine-basedmethods. This project aims to determine whether Eatmore Sprout's seed sanitation and traditional sanitationcan leave sprouts vulnerable to non-adapted human pathogens. Additionally, we plan to test whetherintroducing microbes post sanitation can help protect from a pathogen outbreak. Collectively this work willhelp inform Eatmore Sprouts about best practices to further minimize the risk of contamination by humanpathogens.