Assigning a role for chemosensory signal transduction in Campylobacter jejuni biofilms using a combined omics approach

Biofilms serve as a protective mechanism for bacteria to cope with environmental stress. Whilst ordinarily a fastidious organism, it has been long suggested that C. jejuni is able to utilise this mode of growth as a way to transmit infection from the avian host to humans. Herein, we undertook a combinatorial approach to examine differential expression of C. jejuni genes and protein abundance during biofilm formation. RNA sequencing and proteomics via quantitative liquid chromatography – tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) revealed biofilm growth induced a substantial rearrangement of the C. jejuni transcriptome and proteome, with ~600 genes differentially expressed in biofilms compared to planktonic cells. Biofilm-induced genes / proteins were those involved in iron metabolism and acquisition, cell division, glycan production and attachment, while those repressed were associated with metabolism, amino acid uptake and utilisation, and large tracts of the chemotaxis pathway. Examination of differentially expressed transcripts from planktonic cells and those in a biofilm in Campylobacter jejuni