POSTERS: Proteomics / metabolomics / genomics
S. Typhimurium strain and tomato genotypes affect the persistence of Salmonella in tomato plants
Loic Deblais - The Ohio State University, Food Animal Health Research Program. Linto Antony- South Dakota State University, Sally Miller- The Ohio State University, Department of Plant Pathology, Claudio Vrisman- The Ohio State University, Department of Plant Pathology, Gireesh Rajashekara- The Ohio State University, Food Animal Hea
Little is known about the genes essential for the persistence of Salmonella in plant tissues. Our preliminary studies showed that S. enterica subsp. enterica serotype Typhimurium (MDD14) displayed a lower persistence in contaminated tomato leaf tissues compared to the six other S. Typhimurium strains tested (JSG626, JSG210, JSG3444, JSG637, JSG634, and EV030415). The reduced persistence of MDD14 in tomato plants was more attenuated in ‘Tiny Tim’ plants compared to the other four varieties (‘Saladette”, ‘mountain Spring’, ‘OH4292’, and ‘Celebrity’ varieties) tested. In vitro experiments showed that MDD14 had an equivalent growth rate and motility, and significantly higher abundance of biofilm compared to the other strains when grown in Luria-Bertani or M9 minimal medium at 28 °C (P value less than 0.05). The whole genome of the seven S. Typhimurium strains was sequenced using Illumina paired-end MiSeq sequencing. The raw reads were quality checked, assembled, and annotated using FastQC, SPAdes/QUAST, and RAST, respectively. Preliminary results of the annotated genomes showed that only 1.84 % of protein-encoding genes were inconsistent between strains. Interestingly, only 5 genes encoding hypothetical proteins were missing in MDD14 compared to other strains. Studies are underway to delineate the role of these unique proteins in S. Typhimurium persistence. In summary, our study suggested that the genotypes of Salmonella and tomato verities affect the persistence of Salmonella in tomato plants.