Plant-associated microbes to protect sprouts from human pathogens

“芽”是新萌发的种子，可以生吃或煮熟食用。尽管有营养价值，芽孢杆菌还是含有人类病原体，包括沙门氏菌、大肠杆菌和李斯特氏菌。为了符合健康和安全法规，芽苗种植者必须对他们的种子进行消毒，仔细控制生长条件，并持续测试他们的种子和产品是否有人类病原体。这一合作伙伴是生长在不列颠哥伦比亚省柯特奈的加拿大芽苗公司Eatmore Sprouts&Greens Ltd.和UBC的哈尼实验室。Eatmore Sprouts想知道，在他们的芽菜上存在有益的微生物，无论是来自种子，还是在生产过程中引入，是否可以保护他们的产品免受人类病原体的侵害。植物通常与一个复杂的微生物群落(它们的“微生物群”)联系在一起，帮助它们从土壤中吸收养分，并保护它们免受植物病原体的侵袭。植物从种子(从它们的亲本遗传)和土壤中获得微生物群。去除这些微生物可能会使芽苗容易受到适应不良的人类病原体的侵袭。与传统的基于氯的方法相比，使用有机卫生方法可能对内源微生物的影响较小，并且在卫生后更容易引入有益微生物，因此可以食用更多的芽苗。该项目旨在确定Eatmore Sprout的种子卫生和传统卫生是否会使芽苗容易受到未适应的人类病原体的影响。此外，我们计划测试卫生后引入微生物是否有助于防止病原体爆发。总的来说，这项工作将帮助Eatmore Sprouts了解进一步将人类病原体污染风险降至最低的最佳实践。

"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.