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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1473938
This article is part of the Research Topic Ensuring Food Safety and Quality in Sustainable Emerging Production Methods View all 3 articles

Genetic diversity and distinction of Enterococcus faecium and Enterococcus lactis from traditional Montenegrin brine cheeses and salamis

Provisionally accepted
Beatriz Daza Prieto Beatriz Daza Prieto 1*Nadja Raicevic Nadja Raicevic 2Aleksandra Martinovic Aleksandra Martinovic 2Johann Ladstaetter Johann Ladstaetter 1Ivana Zuber Bogdanovic Ivana Zuber Bogdanovic 2Anika Schorpp Anika Schorpp 1Anna Stoeger Anna Stoeger 1Robert L. Mach Robert L. Mach 3Werner Ruppitsch Werner Ruppitsch 1Adriana Cabal Rosel Adriana Cabal Rosel 1
  • 1 Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Vienna, Austria
  • 2 Centre of Excellence for Digitalisation of Microbial Food Safety Risk Assessment and Quality Parameters for Accurate Food Authenticity Certification, Podgorica, Montenegro
  • 3 Faculty of Technical Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Vienna, Austria

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Enterococcus faecium is a widespread acid-lactic bacterium found in the environment, humans, animal microbiota and plays also a role in the production of traditional food. However, the worldwide emergence of multidrug-resistant E. faecium strains represents a major public health threat and is the primary reason that the genus Enterococcus is not recommended for the Qualified Presumption of Safety (QPS) list of the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA), raising concerns about its presence in food products. In this study, 39 E. faecium and five E. lactis isolates were obtained from artisanal brine cheeses and dry sausages, sourced from a total of 21 different Montenegrin producers. The isolates were collected following the ISO 15214:1998 international method and subsequently processed for Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS).Genome analysis based on core genome Multilocus Sequence Type (cgMLST) revealed a high diversity among isolates. Furthermore, the isolates carried antimicrobial resistance genes; the virulence genes acm, sgrA and ecbA; the bacteriocin genes Enterolysin A, Enterocin A, Enterocin P, Duracin Q, Enterocin B, Bacteriocin 31, Enterocin EJ97, Sactipeptides and Enterocin SEK4; the secondary metabolite genes T3PKS, cyclic lactone autoinducer, RiPP-like and NRPS and a maximum of eight plasmids. This study highlights the need for careful monitoring E. faecium and E. lactis strains in food to ensure they do not pose any potential risks to consumer safety.

    Keywords: Whole genome sequencing (WGS), Enterococcus faecium, Enterococcus lactis, antimicrobial resistance genes, virulence genes, Food Safety, Traditional food

    Received: 31 Jul 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Daza Prieto, Raicevic, Martinovic, Ladstaetter, Zuber Bogdanovic, Schorpp, Stoeger, Mach, Ruppitsch and Cabal Rosel. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Beatriz Daza Prieto, Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), Vienna, Austria

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