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RE: Trehalose, a common food additive, may have fueled worldwide Clostridium difficile outbreaks
Given that trehalose is a product formed by brewing yeast, especially as a response to cold shock, it makes me wonder how drinking beer might set off C. diff that might be lingering in the gut. I sure hope that the trehalose from the yeast in my witbier doesn't give me the poops!
As related note, I am doing a metabolic engineering project on brewing yeasts, and genes implicated in trehalose accumulation are some of the targets to short-circuit glycolysis/ethanol metabolism. Hopefully that doesn't result in any proliferation of pathogenic shit critters come consumption!
Now I have to worry when I'm drinking beer? Well hopefully the alcohol kills any C. diff before it has a chance to grow.
Awesome that you work with brewing yeast. Good luck building a better beer.
C. diff can live in alcoholic beverages and be a contaminant in beer production (I mean, you'd hope not), but I was more thinking about the effects of C. diff already in the gut feeding on the trehalose that the brewing yeast is carrying with it. Hopefully not!