Lecture

Food Biotechnology: Microorganisms, Preservation, and Safety

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In course

ENG-436: Food biotechnology

The course will deliver basic knowledge on the principles of food fermentation and enzyme technology. The course will also present benefits that food biotechnology can bring in terms of Nutrition & Health and Sustainability. ...

Description

This lecture covers various topics related to food biotechnology, including the use of microorganisms in food production, techniques for strain optimization, and the challenges of keeping probiotics viable. It also delves into food safety issues, such as bacterial conjugation, gene shuffling, and the importance of maintaining probiotic survivability. The instructor discusses the history of foodborne diseases, common pathogens, and methods for preventing food contamination. Additionally, the lecture explores the role of phages in preventing food spoilage and treating infections, as well as the significance of aflatoxin contamination and the use of proteases in food processing.

Official source

Ontological neighbourhood

Biology

Cell biology: Microorganisms, Cell metabolism

Health sciences

Infectious diseases: Pathogenic bacteria

Related concepts (32)

Bacterial conjugation

Bacterial conjugation is the transfer of genetic material between bacterial cells by direct cell-to-cell contact or by a bridge-like connection between two cells. This takes place through a pilus. It is a parasexual mode of reproduction in bacteria. It is a mechanism of horizontal gene transfer as are transformation and transduction although these two other mechanisms do not involve cell-to-cell contact. Classical E. coli bacterial conjugation is often regarded as the bacterial equivalent of sexual reproduction or mating since it involves the exchange of genetic material.

Pathogen

In biology, a pathogen (πάθος, pathos "suffering", "passion" and -γενής, -genēs "producer of"), in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ. The term pathogen came into use in the 1880s. Typically, the term pathogen is used to describe an infectious microorganism or agent, such as a virus, bacterium, protozoan, prion, viroid, or fungus. Small animals, such as helminths and insects, can also cause or transmit disease.

Pilus

A pilus (Latin for 'hair'; : pili) is a hair-like appendage found on the surface of many bacteria and archaea. The terms pilus and fimbria (Latin for 'fringe'; plural: fimbriae) can be used interchangeably, although some researchers reserve the term pilus for the appendage required for bacterial conjugation. All conjugative pili are primarily composed of pilin – fibrous proteins, which are oligomeric. Dozens of these structures can exist on the bacterial and archaeal surface.

Microsoft PowerPoint

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program, created by Robert Gaskins and Dennis Austin at a software company named Forethought, Inc. It was released on April 20, 1987, initially for Macintosh computers only. Microsoft acquired PowerPoint for about $14 million three months after it appeared. This was Microsoft's first significant acquisition, and Microsoft set up a new business unit for PowerPoint in Silicon Valley where Forethought had been located.

Bacterial cell structure

The bacterium, despite its simplicity, contains a well-developed cell structure which is responsible for some of its unique biological structures and pathogenicity. Many structural features are unique to bacteria and are not found among archaea or eukaryotes. Because of the simplicity of bacteria relative to larger organisms and the ease with which they can be manipulated experimentally, the cell structure of bacteria has been well studied, revealing many biochemical principles that have been subsequently applied to other organisms.

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