738 Part VII: Food Safety
foodborne pathogens. They promise to improve the
efficiency, sensitivity and specificity of pathogen
detection. However one cannot overstate the impor-
tance of preventing foodborne pathogens from enter-
ing the food chain in the first place. Innovations in
food production such as hazard analysis critical con-
trol point (HACCP) programs play a great role in
preventing the spread of the pathogens, as do the
efforts of inspectors and consumers in reporting
unsafe food handling practices. Also, technologies
such as pasteurization and new technologies like
postprocessing irradiation treatment also play or
will play roles in protecting the safety of consumers.
GLOSSARY
AFLP—Amplified fragment length polymorphism.
cDNA—Copy DNA; created when reverse transcrip-
tase is used to create a DNA copy of a transcribed
mRNA.
cfu—Colony forming unit.
DNTP—Deoxynucleotide triphosphate; four different
dNTPs form the building blocks of DNA.
ELISA—Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.
nterotoxin—Protein toxins active in the intestine or on
intestinal cells that causes diarrhea.
Gram-negative bacteria—Gram staining is the first step
in the classification of bacteria. Gram-negative bac-
teria stain pink because an outer membrane prevents
the entrance of the crystal violet dye. The pink color
results from secondary staining with safranin dye.
Gram-positive bacteria—Gram staining is the first step
in the classification of bacteria. Gram-positive bacte-
ria stain purple in the test because they lack an outer
membrane and are colored by the crystal violet dye.
NASBA—Nucleic acid sequence–based amplification.
NTP—Nucleotide triphosphate; four different NTPs
form the building blocks of RNA.
Oligonucleotide—A short DNA sequence, generally
complementary to a gene of interest.
PCR—Polymerase chain reaction.
Primary antibody—An antibody with specificity for the
antigen.
Primer—DNA oligonucleotide complementary to a tar-
get DNA; used to start the next strand in DNA or
RNA synthesis in amplification or in transcription of
RNA.
Probe—DNA oligonucleotide labeled with a tag (e.g.,
fluorescein) for detection of an amplified gene.
Psychrotropic—Able to grow and replicate at low tem-
peratures.
RAPD—Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA.
RFLP—Random fragment length polymorphism.
RT-PCR—Reverse transcription PCR.
Secondary antibody—An antibody with species-level
specificity for the primary antibody. Secondary anti-
bodies are often conjugated to a colorimetric sub-
strate, allowing detection of the antibody-antigen
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