Comparative Transcriptomic Analysis of Salmonella in Desiccation

To explore the mechanisms of Salmonella desiccation resistance, we studied the transcriptomic responses in Salmonella Tennessee (Tennessee), using S. Typhimurium LT2 (LT2), a strain weakly resistant to desiccation, as a reference strain. In response to 2 h air-drying at 11% equilibrated relative humidity, approximately one-fourth of the ORFs in the Tennessee genome and one-fifth in LT2 were differentially expressed (> 2-fold). Among all differentially expressed functional groups (>5-fold) in both strains, the expression fold change associated with fatty acid metabolism was the highest, and constituted 51 and 35% of the total expression fold change in Tennessee and LT2, respectively. Tennessee showed greater changes in expression of genes associated with stress response and envelope modification than LT2, while showing lesser changes in protein biosynthesis expression. Expression of flagella genes was significantly more inhibited in stationary phase cells of Tennessee than LT2 both before and after desiccation. Salmonella Typhimurium LT2 ATCC strain 19585 (LT2) and Tennessee strain K4643 (Tennessee) were grown in TSB at 37 ºC with shaking for 20 h. Cells (~8 log CFU) for each strain were added on the discs and either stored at -80ºC directly, as control samples; or kept at 11% ERH at 25°C for 2 h and then transferred into -80 ºC, as desiccation treated samples. Three independent experiments were carried out for each condition.