Bacterial community diversity and variation in spray water sources and the tomato fruit surface.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) consumption has been one of the most common causes of produce-associated salmonellosis in the United States. Contamination may originate from animal waste, insects, soil or water. Current guidelines for fresh tomato production recommend the use of potable water for applications coming in direct contact with the fruit, but due to high demand, water from other sources is frequently used. We sought to describe the overall bacterial diversity on the surface of tomato fruit and the effect of two different water sources (ground and surface water) when used for direct crop applications by generating a 454-pyrosequencing 16S rRNA dataset of these different environments. This study represents the first in depth characterization of bacterial communiti

SUBMITTER: Telias A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3108269 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature