Intraspecies competition for niches in the distal gut dictate transmission during persistent Salmonella infection.

ABSTRACT: In order to be transmitted, a pathogen must first successfully colonize and multiply within a host. Ecological principles can be applied to study host-pathogen interactions to predict transmission dynamics. Little is known about the population biology of Salmonella during persistent infection. To define Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium population structure in this context, 129SvJ mice were oral gavaged with a mixture of eight wild-type isogenic tagged Salmonella (WITS) strains. Distinct subpopulations arose within intestinal and systemic tissues after 35 days, and clonal expansion of the cecal and colonic subpopulation was responsible for increases in Salmonella fecal shedding. A co-infection system utilizing differentially marked isogenic strains was developed in which each mouse r

SUBMITTER: Lam LH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4256465 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature