"Take It or Leave It"-Factors Regulating Competence Development and DNA Uptake in Campylobacter jejuni.

ABSTRACT: Campylobacter jejuni has a large adaptive potential due to enormous genetic exchange. Factors regulating natural transformation in this food-borne pathogen are largely unknown but of interest for the application of sustained reduction strategies in the food-processing industry. Using a single cell DNA uptake assay, we visualized that recognition of methylated C. jejuni DNA was essential for the first step of DNA uptake into a DNase resistant state. Transformation rates using a resistance marker correlated with the fraction of competent bacteria, harboring one to maximally four locations of active DNA uptake, not necessarily being located at the cell pole. Competence developed with rising pH between 6.5 and 7.5 under microaerobic conditions and was nearly insensitive towards growth temperat

SUBMITTER: Golz JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8468864 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature