Foodborne Bacterial Pathogens
Salmonella
Primary Objective
- Our overarching aim is to discover how Salmonella pathogenesis is controlled and the genetic and biochemical mechanisms behind its adaptation as a successful foodborne intracellular pathogen. To achieve this we are utilising a combination of the latest techniques in transciptomics, network science, biochemistry, cell biology and functional genomics.
Salmonella is an important foodborne pathogen that continues to pose a major and unacceptable threat to human health throughout the world. In 2008, S. Typhimurium and S. Enteriditis were responsible for 12,100 and 131,468 cases of gastroenteritis in the UK and EU respectively (DEFRA & EFSA Zoonoses Reports). The level of infection has not been below this level since 1980, and has risen as high as 31,341 confirmed cases in 1992. This reflected an epidemic that totalled 586,000 human infections by S. Enteritidis associated with chicken egg. This epidemic was curtailed by effective intervention: an extensive vaccination programme was pursued within the UK chicken flock, and is still underway. However, this vaccine will not provide a long-term solution; either a new Salmonella serovar will eventually acquire the genes necessary for transmission via chicken eggs, or variants of S. Enteritidis could arise that can escape the current vaccination regime and colonise chickens. A further concern is the rise of multi-drug resistant strains of Salmonella. For example, in 2011 a strain of Salmonella (S. Kentucky) resistant to the most powerful antibiotics was reported in the UK, France and Denmark (Le Hello et al., Journal of Infectious Diseases, August 4, 2011). It is crucial that underpinning research is conducted in the area of Salmonella virulence, gene regulation and physiology to provide the knowledge required to develop future interventions.
Over the past 50 years, Salmonella has been studied extensively at the biochemical, physiological and genetical level. In recent decades, a number of sophisticated infection models have been developed in rodents, birds and large farm animal, as well as in mammalian macrophages and epithelial cells. In the last decade, functional genomic techniques have been productive for the study of Salmonella infection biology. Because the interaction of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium with mammalian cells is currently the best understood host-pathogen interaction in biology, the Salmonella system is an attractive model that offers a rich knowledge base to underpin future studies.
As Salmonella enterica is an adaptable and robust micro-organism, it can survive in a variety of environments including the gastrointestinal tract and inside a mammalian cell. IFR pioneered the use of transcriptomic approaches to visualise the strategies used by Salmonella during the infection of human and murine cells and to regulate gene expression in response to environmental stress. The IFR is also investigating the biochemical and metabolic basis behind Salmonella infections resulting in the development of potential live attenuated vaccines.
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