Typing and Characterization of Microbial Isolates: Beyond the Species Level (And making something out of the microbial monitoring scheme)

In an early 2022 publication of Nature Scientific Data, 1,484 genomes from Listeria monocytogenes strains collected in 19 European countries were compiled in one dataset, providing the most accurate pangenome of the species to date. This constructed dataset establishes a basis for understanding the microbial ecology of this major pathogen of concern for the food industry and how certain genetic traits allow the pathogen to adapt to its environment. It was only around twenty years ago that the first genome of Listeria monocytogenes strain EGDe was published in a “Science” paper, after a five-year European project involving several research institutes around Europe.