1. Accurate identification technology of microbial strains
Integrated morphological, physiological and biochemical, molecular biological characteristics, and other methods, such as PFGE (Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis), RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA), Riboprinter, high-throughput gene sequencing-based ANI (Average Nucleotide Identity) and SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms) analysis methods, to achieve accurate identification of microorganisms at species and strain level.
2. Gene safety evaluation technology of microbial strains
Investigate and analyze the internationally and domestically recognized database of antibiotic resistance genes, virulence factor genes, and pathogenicity genes. Establish microbial strains gene safety analysis platform which is on the strength of whole genome sequence alignment. Build a technical system of microbial gene safety evaluation. And explore the traditional fermented foods’ potential safety hazards of microbial strains.
3. Compound microorganism living bacteria count technology
Establish culturable method, microorganism metagenome binning method, PMA-qPCR, and RT-qPCR technology system. Conduct compound microorganism living bacteria count technology research. Realize targeted quantitative detection ofliving microorganisms from compound microorganism inoculum, products, environmental samples, and so on.
4.Whole Genome Sequencing(WGS)
Whole genome sequencing refers to the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism’s genome. Whole genome sequencing provides a comprehensive and precise analysis of an organism's base composition, revealing the genome's complexity and diversity. Since the first commercial automatic sequencer appeared in 1987, as a consequence of the rapid development of sequencing technology, the cost of sequencing is declining, and the whole genome sequence of microorganisms is becoming one of the more widely used technologies in molecular biology laboratories. Compared with traditional microbial identification methods, whole genome sequencing is far more advantageous and has certainly become a cutting-edge technology with great development potential in current biological research. WGS has been included in the new regulations and guidelines in the fields of food, medicine, and feed, providing a series of important methods for the systematic classification of microorganisms, strain typing, function mining, and safety evaluation. CICC has established a set of standardized operating procedures including extraction of genomic DNA, library preparation, DNA sequencing, bioinformatics analysis, etc., which has enabled rapid and accurate determination of microbial whole genome sequence.
5.Strain typing and traceability
The strain typing technology is based on microbial DNA finger printing and genomic DNA sequence analysis. It is a powerful tool for industrial enterprises to carry out rapid, accurate, and high-resolution microbial strain level identification, molecular typing, and traceability investigation. In recent years, as the legal guidelines of various industries continue to improve, the requirements for strain level are more widely applied in the process of product declaration and government supervision in various industries. Meanwhile, the differentiation of different strains of the same species plays an increasingly important role in the development of many fields. CICC has established an international leading microbial strain typing technology platform, including Ribotyping, PFGE (Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis), RAPD (Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA), MLST (Multilocus sequence typing) and WGS (Whole genome sequencing), etc. And providing solutions to the technical problems of strain typing microbial traceability.
6.Evaluation of strain safety
Microbes appear in health food, new food raw materials, special food, food additives, new feed raw materials, new feed additives, and other industries as production strains or directly added strains. Its safety evaluation has been paid more and more attention by international and domestic government supervision,and the legal requirements are constantly updated. For instance, in 2018, the EU issued Guidance on the characterisation of microorganisms used as feed additives or as production organisms (EFSA Journal 2018;16(3):5206). In 2019, the EU issued statement on Characterisation of microorganisms used for the production of food enzymes (EFSA Journal 2019;17(6):5741). In 2019, Announcement No. 226 “Requirements for Application Materials of New Feed Additives”was officially implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China. CICC has long-term tracing domestic and foreign regulations and standards regarding the safety evaluation of microbial strains, accumulated a wealth of technical experience, and provided comprehensive microbial strain safety evaluation services to industrial enterprises.
7.Analysis of microbial community structure
Determine the microbial community structure, species, and abundance of the sample through cloning library construction, 16S rRNA amplification sequencing analysis, metagenomics, and other microbial flora analysis method.
After 60 years of continuous research, accumulation, and improvement, CICC has established an international leading and systematic analysis platform for microbial flora structure. And able to issue internationally recognized and legally effective test reports. The biodiversity of complex microbial samples can be analyzed by denaturing gradient electrophoresis (DGGE), clone library construction, 16S rRNA amplification sequencing, and metagenomics sequencing. CICC provides “one-stop service” microbial community structure analysis scheme forresearch and development innovation, product declaration, quality control, product circulation, and strain traceability of complex environmental samples or microbial pollution samples of enterprises. Including but not limited to investigating the spatiotemporal variation, evolutionary relationship, functional activity,and interaction between functional activity and environment, accurately analyzing the species and abundance of low abundance, difficult to cultivate or nonculturable microorganisms in the sample, etc.