Microbiomes not only affect humans but are also agriculturally relevant. For instance, bacteria of the plant microbiome reside in soil, on leaves or inside the plant. New microbial seed supplements represent a sustainable and ecologically sound alternative to chemicals. Delivering select microbes to seeds, improves health and development throughout the plant life cycle, and optimizes yields.
Another important aspect is food safety. Food safety regulations aim at protecting consumers from foodborne illness, which involves tight surveillance from “farm to fork”.
Food safety means to protect consumers from foodborne illness and involves tight surveillance from “farm to fork”.
The role of bioinformatics: Developing seed supplements requires analytics that can link microbiome profiles to plant health and environmental factors.
Modern genomics and bioinformatics can help to quickly control food-borne contamination, which is key to ensuring food safety. After the detection and identification of pathogenic microbes, typing via whole genome analysis is the fastest, most accurate path to tracking a pathogen contamination back to the source. In addition, whole genome analysis can reveal the presence of genes involved in antimicrobial resistance.