Expression profile of Medicago truncatula roots inoculated with human enteric pathogens.

Disease outbreaks due to the consumption of legume seedlings contaminated with human enteric bacterial pathogens like Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica are reported every year. We found surface and internal colonization of Medicago truncatula by Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli O157:H7 even with inoculum levels as low as two bacteria per plant. Expression analyses using microarray revealed that some Medicago truncatula genes were regulated in a similar manner in response to both of these enteric pathogens. Medicago truncatula roots were inoculated with low inoculum levels of two enteric bacteria per plant (E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella). 10 days post inoculated plants were used for RNA extraction and hybridization on Affymetrix microarrays.