Comprehensive Identification of Bacteria in Processed Fresh Edible Sea Urchin Using 16S Ribosomal DNA Sequence Analysis: The Products Contain Various Food Poisoning-related Bacteria and Opportunistic Bacterial Pathogens

摘要

The bacteria contained in processed fresh edible sea urchin (uni in Japanese) were identified with high accuracy using 16S ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequence analysis. The 586 isolates that were recovered from ten domestic products comprised 13 genera and 18 species. The food poisoning-related bacteria Bacillus cereus (B. cereus), Bacillus weihen-stephanensis (B. weihenstephanensis), and Staphylo-coccus aureus (S. aureus) were detected in 4/10 samples, while the causative agents of bacterial opportunistic infections, Staphylococcus equorum (S. equo-rum), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (S. maltophilia), Burkholderia cepacia (B. cepacia), and Serratia pro-teamaculans (S. proteamaculans), were detected in all 10 samples. It is not known whether these pathogens were components of the sea urchin microflora or were the result of contamination from the environment or human contact during the manufacturing process. Nevertheless, strict quality control standards are needed for the processing of fresh edible sea urchin. This is the first comprehensive analysis of the bacterial microflora of processed fresh edible sea urchin. Key words-processed fresh edible sea urchin, pathogenic bacteria, 16S ribosomal DNA, identification