Brochothrix thermosphacta Genome sequencing and assembly. Brochothrix thermosphacta

Despite increasing knowledge and advances in food preservation techniques, microbial spoilage of foods causes substantial losses with negative social and economic consequences. To better control the contamination and microbial spoilage of foods, fundamental knowledge of the biology of key spoilage bacteria is crucial. As one of the most common meat spoilage organisms, B. thermosphacta contributes substantially to spoilage-associated losses. Nonetheless, this organism and in particular its genome, remains largely unstudied.In this work, 12 B. thermosphacta strains were sequenced, assembled into draft genomes and comparative genomic analyses were conducted to gain greater knowledge of the biology and evolution of this problematic meat spoilage bacterium.