Table 1.
Selected omics techniques and examples of their application in food safety
| Techniquea | Examples of uses and applications in food safety |
|---|---|
| Genomics (genome sequencing) | Subtyping; characterization of new and emerging pathogens; identification of assay and therapeutic targets; characterization of transmission routes |
| Transcriptomics | Characterization of pathogen response to stress and antimicrobial treatments; new antimicrobial discovery |
| Proteomics | Characterization of pathogen response to stress and antimicrobial treatments; new antimicrobial discovery; characterization of host response to pathogens; identification of protein-based assay targets |
| Metabolomics | Characterization of pathogen response to stress, antimicrobial treatments, and different environments (including competitive microorganisms); characterization of host response to pathogens |
| Metagenomics | Detection of pathogens in mixed cultures, identification of transmission routes; identification of new non-culturable pathogens; characterization of bacterial diversity in the food chain and effect on pathogen diversity and presence |
| Synthetic biology | Construction of control strains for detection and validation studies; construction of antimicrobial producer strains to be used for biocontrol; construction of highly virulent and wide host range bacteriophages for detection and biocontrol |
a
Techniques discussed here are not necessarily all covered in the text of this review.