The global transcriptomes of Salmonella enterica serovars Gallinarum, Dublin and Enteritidis in the avian host

Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum causes Fowl Typhoid in poultry, and it is host specific to avian species. The reasons why S. Gallinarum is restricted to avians, and at the same time predominately cause systemic infections in these hosts, are unknown. In the current study, we developed a surgical approach to study gene expression inside the peritoneal cavity of hens to shed light on this. Strains of the host specific S. Gallinarum, the cattle-adapted S. Dublin and the broad host range serovar, S. Enteritidis, were enclosed in semi-permeable tubes and surgically placed for 4 h in the peritoneal cavity of hens and for control in a minimal medium at 41.2 °C. Global gene-expression under these conditions was compared between serovars using tiled-micro arrays with probes representing the genome of S. Typhimurium, S. Dublin and S. Gallinarum. Among other genes, genes of SPI-13, SPI-14 and the macrophage survival gene mig-14 were specifically up-regulated in the host specific serovar, S. Gallinarum, and further studies into the role of these genes in host specific infection are highly indicated. Analysis of pathways and GO-terms, which were enriched in the host specific S. Gallinarum without being enriched in the two other serovars indicated that host specificity was characterized by a metabolic fine-tuning as well as unique expression of virulence associated pathways. The cattle adapted serovar S. Dublin differed from the two other serovars by a lack of up-regulation of genes encoded in the virulence associated pathogenicity island 2, and this may explain the inability of this serovar to cause disease in poultry.