Desiccation Tolerance in Salmonella and its Implications

Abstract

Salmonella enterica is a worldwide food-borne pathogen, which regularly causes large outbreaks of food poisoning. Recent outbreaks linked to consumption of contaminated foods with low water-activity, have raised interest in understanding the factors that control fitness of this pathogen to dry environment. Consequently, the general objective of this study was to extend our knowledge on desiccation tolerance and long-term persistence of Salmonella. We discovered that dehydrated STm entered into a viable-but-nonculturable state, and that addition of chloramphenicol reduced bacterial survival. This finding implied that adaptation to desiccation stress requires de-novo protein synthesis. We also discovered that dried STm cells develop cross-tolerance to multiple stresses that the pathogen might encounter in the agriculture/food environment, such as high or low temperatures, salt, and various disinfectants. These findings have important implications for food safety because they demonstrate the limitations of chemical and physical treatments currently utilized by the food industry to completely inactivate Salmonella. In order to identify genes involved in desiccation stress tolerance, we employed transcriptomic analysis of dehydrated and wet cells and direct screening of knock-out mutant and transposon libraries. Transcriptomic analysis revealed that dehydration induced expression of ninety genes and down-regulated seven. Ribosomal structural genes represented the most abundant functional group with a relatively higher transcription during dehydration. Other large classes of induced functional groups included genes involved in amino acid metabolism, energy production, ion transport, transcription, and stress response. Initial genetic analysis of a number of up-regulated genes was carried out). It was found that mutations in rpoS, yahO, aceA, nifU, rpoE, ddg,fnr and kdpE significantly compromised desiccation tolerance, supporting their role in desiccation stress response.