February 2018 | Volume 2 | Article 5 1 ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 21 February 2018 doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2018.00005 Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems | www.frontiersin.org Edited by: Joshua B. Gurtler, Agricultural Research Service (USDA), United States Reviewed by: Tam L. Mai, IEH laboratories and Consultant Group, United States Ben Davies Tall, United States Food and Drug Administration, United States Junia Jean-Gilles Beaubrun, United States Food and Drug Administration, United States *Correspondence: Marta Prado marta.prado@inl.int; Alejandro Garrido-Maestu alejandro.garrido@inl.int Specialty section: This article was submitted to Agro Food Safety, a section of the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems Received: 14 December 2017 Accepted: 05 February 2018 Published: 21 February 2018 Citation: Azinheiro S, Carvalho J, Prado M and Garrido-Maestu A (2018) Evaluation of Different Genetic Targets for Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteriditis and Typhimurium, Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal AMPlifcation for Detection in Food Samples. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 2:5. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2018.00005 Evaluation of Different Genetic Targets for Salmonella enterica Serovar Enteriditis and Typhimurium, Using Loop-Mediated Isothermal AMPlification for Detection in Food Samples Sarah Azinheiro, Joana Carvalho, Marta Prado* and Alejandro Garrido-Maestu* Department of Life Sciences, Nano4Food Unit, Food Quality and Safety Research Group, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Braga, Portugal Salmonella Enteritidis and Salmonella Typhimurium continue to be the most frequently identifed serovars among confrmed cases of salmonellosis. In the current study, different genetic targets (safA, sdf I, STM4497, and typh) were compared, attending to their specifcity and sensitivity in pure cultures and in spiked samples, in order to determine their capacity to accurately identify them by loop-mediated isothermal amplif- cation (LAMP). For the genes selected to detect Enteritidis, both performed equally well regarding their specifcity, but safA proved more sensitive than Sdf I; minor differences were observed among these genes when analyzing spiked food samples. Regarding the targets for Typhimurium, STM4497, and typh, the former demonstrated to be more specifc and sensitive, both when analyzing pure cultures as well as spiked samples. These results highlight the importance of an adequate evaluation of the genetic targets selected, before their implementation for routine analyses. Keywords: Salmonella Enteritidis, Salmonella Typhimurium, LAMP, characterization, safA, Sdf I, typh, STM4497 INTRODUCTION Salmonella continues to be a major health issue in Europe, as well as in the rest of the world. Tis is supported by the fgures reported by the European Food Safety Authority, who indicated that in 2015 a total of 94,625 salmonellosis cases were confrmed, representing a 1.9% increase compared to the previous year. In addition, it was also highlighted that the most prevalent serovar continues to be Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) and Salmonella Typhimurium (ST), representing 45.7 and 15.8% of all reported serovars confrmed in human cases (EFSA, 2015). It has been extensively reported that classical microbiological methods, even though reliable, are lengthy and tedious. In this sense molecular applications have greatly allowed the reduc- tion in the time needed to achieve the fnal result (Chapela et al., 2015; Law et al., 2015). One of the most popular methodologies, as evidenced by the increased number of publications in many diferent felds of microbiology, relies on the detection of specifc genes by PCR/qPCR (Malorny et al., 2004; Park et al., 2013; Gianfranceschi et al., 2014; Garrido-Maestu et al., 2015; Maurischat et al., 2015). Novel technologies are continually being developed in order to further