Heterogeneity in Bacillus subtilis spore germination and outgrowth An area of key challenges for "omics" in food microbiology

The ability to analyze genomics data at single cell level is what sets a major challenge to the scientific community at large and the food microbiology community in particular. This chapter discusses these aspects in state of the art microbial analysis of relevance to food microbiology. It uses as model organism Bacillus subtilis, an aerobic spore-forming bacterium with sequenced genome(s). The process of spore formation has been studied in detail by using B. subtilis as the model organism. Effective elimination of spores is only possible once spore detection and inactivation systems are available. To develop such systems it is necessary to understand the molecular mechanisms behind the processes of germination and outgrowth as well as the stress-resistance properties of spores. The chapter describes the study of the effect of sorbic acid, heat, and the combination of both stresses and tea compounds at single-spore and cell level.