The objectives of the FLUOPATH project are 1) to find new biomarkers (promoeters that induce the expression of genes of interest) coupled to a fluorescent biosensor allowing to acquire new knowledge in bacterial cell physiology related to the impact of technological disturbances inducing stresses. The study will be focused on the growth, survival and virulence of two pathogens in dairy products (milk, diluted cheese and if possible solid cheese) and 2) to use this knowledge combined with the knowledge present in the scientific literature to improve the models for predicting the microbiological risk in dairy products. The pathogens considered will be L. monocytogenes and B. cereus. The matrices considered will be liquid milk as well as model diluted and undiluted cheese (gelified matrix). New models based on the use at the scale of the single cell and the whole population of biomarkers will be developed to predict growth, resistance and virulence (invasive capacity for L. monocytogenes and entry into sporulation and toxin production for B. cereus) to stress while taking into account cellular variability. A precise quantification of the impact of stressful industrial conditions will be carried out on bacterial responses at the cellular level: probability of single cell / whole poulation growth, survival, toxin production, spore formation, invasive capacity. The challenge is to design and validate in food matrices bacterial biomarkers of phenotypes of interest in risk assessment in order to incorporate the intensity of biomarker response into exposure assessment models.

The consumption of tomatoes is classically associated with beneficial effects on cardiometabolic health. However, many parameters can change very significantly the nutritional quality and therefore the health value of tomatoes. The objective of this project is to work on several parameters in order to optimize this quality and maximize the beneficial effects of the tomato. Among these factors, we will focus on the choice of tomato genotype and their growing conditions. Particular interest will be given to the irrigation strategy which increases the content of phytomicronutrients. Since a significant portion of tomato consumption is through dried powders, we will optimize this technological process to ensure optimal nutritional quality for the finished product. Finally, these optimized tomato powders will be administered to mice and Human to evaluate the preventive effect in cardiometabolic health.