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Ecological niche adaptation of Salmonella Typhimurium U288 is associated with altered pathogenicity and reduced zoonotic potential

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Matt BawnORCiD

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

Abstract

© 2021, The Author(s). The emergence of new bacterial pathogens is a continuing challenge for agriculture and food safety. Salmonella Typhimurium is a major cause of foodborne illness worldwide, with pigs a major zoonotic reservoir. Two phylogenetically distinct variants, U288 and ST34, emerged in UK pigs around the same time but present different risk to food safety. Here we show using genomic epidemiology that ST34 accounts for over half of all S. Typhimurium infections in people while U288 less than 2%. That the U288 clade evolved in the recent past by acquiring AMR genes, indels in the virulence plasmid pU288-1, and accumulation of loss-of-function polymorphisms in coding sequences. U288 replicates more slowly and is more sensitive to desiccation than ST34 isolates and exhibited distinct pathogenicity in the murine model of colitis and in pigs. U288 infection was more disseminated in the lymph nodes while ST34 were recovered in greater numbers in the intestinal contents. These data are consistent with the evolution of S. Typhimurium U288 adaptation to pigs that may determine their reduced zoonotic potential.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Kirkwood M, Vohra P, Bawn M, Thilliez G, Pye H, Tanner J, Chintoan-Uta C, Branchu P, Petrovska L, Dallman T, Hall N, Stevens MP, Kingsley RA

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Communications Biology

Year: 2021

Volume: 4

Online publication date: 23/04/2021

Acceptance date: 19/03/2021

Date deposited: 10/02/2025

ISSN (electronic): 2399-3642

Publisher: Nature Research

URL: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-021-02013-4

DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-02013-4

Data Access Statement: All data is freely available in publicly accessible data bases under accession numbers reported in Supplementary Data and previously reported. Source data for main figures can be accessed from the figshare database. Materials and all other data are available from the authors at reasonable request.

PubMed id: 33893390

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