Investigating the Growth of Salmonella in Amoebae to Determine Virulence Factors
Salmonella is an infectious pathogen that causes food poisoning and diarrhea. Human macrophages engulf bacteria but sometimes are unable to degrade them, because bacteria like Salmonella use virulence factors, such as periplasmic superoxide dismutase SodCI, to combat antimicrobial activities. Like macrophages, amoebae eat bacteria in their surroundings, using mechanisms similar to macrophages to kill. Some bacteria, such as Legionella, which are responsible for Legionnaire's Disease, evolved to live inside of amoebae. Legionella uses the same set of genes that are required to survive in amoebae to live inside of macrophages and cause disease in humans. Legionella becomes a super bug when it is taken up by amoebae, becoming more resistant to antibiotics and biocides. We found that Salmonella is able to grow inside of amoebae requiring the same proteins as it does to survive in macrophages. Through more experiments, amoebae may be used as a model system to investigate mechanisms of Salmonella pathogenesis.
School:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Department:
Biological Sciences
Research Advisor:
James M. Slauch
Department of Research Advisor:
Microbiology
Year of Publication:
2007