Scientists Discover New Salmonella Proteins

Many unknown small proteins that may play a crucial role in Salmonella infection have been discovered by a team led by JMU doctoral student Elisa Venturini. As a result, the number of known small Salmonella proteins has grown by 139 to over 600.

Since salmonellae are also becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, new approaches are being sought to combat them.

About Salmonellosis
Poor hygienic practices during cooking or handling of food products can cause this distressing infection of the intestines leading to diarrhea, cramps and fever.

‘Salmonella are bacteria that can cause food poisoning with severe diarrhea. If they penetrate from the intestine into the blood system, this can lead to sepsis, life-threatening inflammatory reactions in the entire organism. ’

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An international research team, led by scientists from Würzburg, shows how to succeed in this search in the new research journal microLife.

More than 100 new proteins found

The small protein MgrB, which consists of 47 amino acids, stood out in the analyses. If the gene containing the blueprint for this protein is switched off, the salmonellae can no longer infect human cells.

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Although the protein had been studied before, this important function had not been recognised. This has only now been achieved thanks to a new combinatorial approach. Among other things, three data sets that had been generated in earlier infection studies were used for this purpose.

Blueprint for other bacteria too?

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Sensitive and specific assay to detect different serotypes of Salmonella has been developed, which would paving the way for rapid serotyping directly from specimens.

"Hopefully our approach will provide a blueprint that can also be applied to other organisms for which data sets already exist," says Venturini. The study has clearly shown that the method can still bring new relevant genes to light even in comprehensively studied organisms such as salmonella:

The scientific community now has a priority list of previously unknown infection-related small salmonella proteins for further investigation.

Most Common Cause Of Foodborne Outbreaks in Europe Is Salmonella
Nearly one in three foodborne outbreaks in the EU in 2018 were caused by Salmonella, say the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Source-Eurekalert