Bacterial composition and cultural dynamics of microgreen-associated microbiota during selective enrichment for Listeria monocytogenes.

In this project, the bacterial microbiota associated with four popular varieties of retail-acquired fresh microgreens were sampled in replicates and profiled using 16S rRNA (V3-V4) amplicon sequencing. By focusing on a two-step Listeria enrichment procedure commonly employed in the Canadian MFHPB-30 and USDA MLG 8.13 reference methods, the cultural dynamics of bacterial communities recovered from both unadulterated and L. monocytogenes-inoculated microgreens were also examined using the same 16S metabarcoding analysis.