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Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants

Minimally processed or fresh fruits and vegetables are unfortunately linked to an increasing number of food-borne diseases, such as salmonellosis. One of the relevant virulence factors during the initial phases of the infection process is the bacterial flagellum. Although its function is well studie...

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Autores principales: Zarkani, Azhar A., López-Pagán, Nieves, Grimm, Maja, Sánchez-Romero, María Antonia, Ruiz-Albert, Javier, Beuzón, Carmen R., Schikora, Adam
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7355505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32485895
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8060815
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author Zarkani, Azhar A.
López-Pagán, Nieves
Grimm, Maja
Sánchez-Romero, María Antonia
Ruiz-Albert, Javier
Beuzón, Carmen R.
Schikora, Adam
author_facet Zarkani, Azhar A.
López-Pagán, Nieves
Grimm, Maja
Sánchez-Romero, María Antonia
Ruiz-Albert, Javier
Beuzón, Carmen R.
Schikora, Adam
author_sort Zarkani, Azhar A.
collection PubMed
description Minimally processed or fresh fruits and vegetables are unfortunately linked to an increasing number of food-borne diseases, such as salmonellosis. One of the relevant virulence factors during the initial phases of the infection process is the bacterial flagellum. Although its function is well studied in animal systems, contradictory results have been published regarding its role during plant colonization. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that Salmonella’s flagellin plays a versatile function during the colonization of tomato plants. We have assessed the persistence in plant tissues of a Salmonella enterica wild type strain, and of a strain lacking the two flagellins, FljB and FliC. We detected no differences between these strains concerning their respective abilities to reach distal, non-inoculated parts of the plant. Analysis of flagellin expression inside the plant, at both the population and single cell levels, shows that the majority of bacteria down-regulate flagellin production, however, a small fraction of the population continues to express flagellin at a very high level inside the plant. This heterogeneous expression of flagellin might be an adaptive strategy to the plant environment. In summary, our study provides new insights on Salmonella adaption to the plant environment through the regulation of flagellin expression.
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spelling pubmed-73555052020-07-23 Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants Zarkani, Azhar A. López-Pagán, Nieves Grimm, Maja Sánchez-Romero, María Antonia Ruiz-Albert, Javier Beuzón, Carmen R. Schikora, Adam Microorganisms Article Minimally processed or fresh fruits and vegetables are unfortunately linked to an increasing number of food-borne diseases, such as salmonellosis. One of the relevant virulence factors during the initial phases of the infection process is the bacterial flagellum. Although its function is well studied in animal systems, contradictory results have been published regarding its role during plant colonization. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that Salmonella’s flagellin plays a versatile function during the colonization of tomato plants. We have assessed the persistence in plant tissues of a Salmonella enterica wild type strain, and of a strain lacking the two flagellins, FljB and FliC. We detected no differences between these strains concerning their respective abilities to reach distal, non-inoculated parts of the plant. Analysis of flagellin expression inside the plant, at both the population and single cell levels, shows that the majority of bacteria down-regulate flagellin production, however, a small fraction of the population continues to express flagellin at a very high level inside the plant. This heterogeneous expression of flagellin might be an adaptive strategy to the plant environment. In summary, our study provides new insights on Salmonella adaption to the plant environment through the regulation of flagellin expression. MDPI 2020-05-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7355505/ /pubmed/32485895 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8060815 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Zarkani, Azhar A.
López-Pagán, Nieves
Grimm, Maja
Sánchez-Romero, María Antonia
Ruiz-Albert, Javier
Beuzón, Carmen R.
Schikora, Adam
Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants
title Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants
title_full Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants
title_fullStr Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants
title_full_unstemmed Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants
title_short Salmonella Heterogeneously Expresses Flagellin during Colonization of Plants
title_sort salmonella heterogeneously expresses flagellin during colonization of plants
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7355505/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32485895
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8060815
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