title: Involvement of the Rcs regulon in the persistence of Salmonella Typhimurium in tomatoes.
abstract: It is becoming clear that human enteric pathogens, like Salmonella, can efficiently colonize vegetative and reproductive organs of plants. Even though the bacterium's ability to proliferate within plant tissues has been linked to outbreaks of salmonellosis, little is known about regulatory and physiological adaptations of Salmonella, or other human pathogens, to their persistence in plants. A screen of Salmonella deletion mutants in tomatoes identified rcsA and rcsB genes as those under positive selection. In tomato fruits, populations of Salmonella rcsB mutants were as much as 100-fold lower than those of the wild type. In the follow-up experiments, competitive fitness of rcsA and rcsB mutants was strongly reduced in tomatoes. Bioinformatics predictions identified a putative Salmonella RcsAB binding box (TTMGGAWWAABCTYA) and revealed an extensive putative RcsAB regulon, of which many members were differentially fit within tomatoes.
authors: Soil and Water Science Department, Genetics Institute Rm330E, University of Florida-IFAS, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
authors: Massimiliano
authors: M
authors: Marvasi
authors: Soil and Water Science Department, Genetics Institute Rm330E, University of Florida-IFAS, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
authors: Marcos H
authors: MH
authors: de Moraes
authors: Soil and Water Science Department, Genetics Institute Rm330E, University of Florida-IFAS, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
authors: Isai
authors: I
authors: Salas-Gonzalez
authors: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
authors: Steffen
authors: S
authors: Porwollik
authors: Soil and Water Science Department, Genetics Institute Rm330E, University of Florida-IFAS, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
authors: Marcelo
authors: M
authors: Farias
authors: Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, University of California, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: McClelland
authors: Soil and Water Science Department, Genetics Institute Rm330E, University of Florida-IFAS, Gainesville, FL, 32611, USA.
authors: Max
authors: M
authors: Teplitski