Tracing the food sources of isolated strains of Listeria monocytogenes through fatty acid profiles analysis

Listeria monocytogenes widely exists in different kinds of food. L. monocytogenes infection could induce to a highly fatality ratio up to 30–50%. The objection of this study is to provide a new way to trace the food sources of isolated strains of L. monocytogenes when a foodborne poisoning of L. monocytogenes breaking up. In this paper, the whole-cell fatty acid profiles for the 22 strains were detected by the microorganism identification system (MIS). Results showed that the major fatty acid components of L. monocytogenes were branched acids: anteiso C15:0, anteiso C17:0, iso C15:0, iso C17:0, iso C16:0, iso C14:0, saturated chain C16:0 and C14:0 and hydroxy acid C8:0 3OH. Based on the fatty acid profiles, 22 L. monocytogenes strains were statistically clustered into three major subgroups, which were highly relative to their food sources. Strains in the same cluster were isolated from the same food source, while strains in different clusters were isolated from different food sources.