Cited by 85Salmonella and Campylobacter epidemiologyHelicobacter pylori-related gastroenterology studiesBacterial Genetics and Biotechnology

Campylobacter jejuni transcriptional and genetic adaptation during human infection

Open access
Crofts, Alexander A., Poly, Frédéric M., Ewing, Cheryl P., Kuroiwa, Janelle M., Rimmer, Joanna E., Harro, Clayton, Sack, David, Talaat, Kawsar R. +15 more·2018·Nature Microbiology

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni infections are a leading cause of bacterial food-borne diarrhoeal illness worldwide, and Campylobacter infections in children are associated with stunted growth and therefore long-term deficits into adulthood. Despite this global impact on health and human capital, how zoonotic C. jejuni responds to the human host remains unclear. Unlike other intestinal pathogens, C. jejuni does not harbour pathogen-defining toxins that explicitly contribute to disease in humans. This makes understanding Campylobacter pathogenesis challenging and supports a broad examination of bacterial factors that contribute to C. jejuni infection. Here, we use a controlled human infection model to characterize C. jejuni transcriptional and genetic adaptations in vivo, along with a non-human primate infection model to validate our approach. We found that variation in 11 genes is associated with either acute or persistent human infections and includes products involved in host cell invasion, bile sensing and flagella modification, plus additional potential therapeutic targets. In particular, a functional version of the cell invasion protein A (cipA) gene product is strongly associated with persistently infecting bacteria and we identified its biochemical role in flagella modification. These data characterize the adaptive C. jejuni response to primate infections and suggest therapy design should consider the intrinsic differences between acute and persistently infecting bacteria. In addition, RNA sequencing revealed conserved responses during natural host commensalism and human infections. Thirty-nine genes were differentially regulated in vivo across hosts, lifestyles and C. jejuni strains. This conserved in vivo response highlights important C. jejuni survival mechanisms such as iron acquisition and evasion of the host mucosal immune response. These advances highlight pathogen adaptability across host species and demonstrate the utility of multidisciplinary collaborations in future clinical trials to study pathogens in vivo.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41564-018-0133-7

Cites

47 of 47 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Campylobacter jejuni encodes genes for heme and iron uptake that are transcribed under iron-limited stress.

    “Campylobacter jejuni encodes genes necessary for the uptake of heme and iron that are transcribed under iron-limited stress (Crofts et al., 2018).”

    From The Impact of Dietary Transition Metals on Host-Bacterial Interactions (2018) · cites this paper as Crofts et al., 2018

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Crofts, A. A., Poly, F. M., Ewing, C. P., Kuroiwa, J. M., Rimmer, J. E., Harro, C., Sack, D., Talaat, K. R., Porter, C. K., Gutierrez, R. L., DeNearing, B., Brubaker, J., Laird, R. M., Maue, A. C., Jaep, K., Alcala, A., Tribble, D. R., Riddle, M. S., Ramakrishnan, A., McCoy, A. J., Davies, B. W., Guerry, P., & Trent, M. S.
Affiliations
  • The University of Texas at Austin (US)
  • Naval Medical Research Command (US)
  • Johns Hopkins University (US)
  • Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (US)
  • United States Naval Medical Research Unit SOUTH (PE)
  • University of Georgia (US)
Corresponding author
  • Guerry, Patricia
  • Trent, M. Stephen
Venue
Nature Microbiology
Published
2018-03-27
Volume
3
Issue
4
Pages
494-502
ISSN
2058-5276 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2795318775
Cited by
85
References
47
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7
FWCI
11.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Microbiology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01AI064184, R01AI129940, R01AI076322)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Salmonella and Campylobacter epidemiology
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Surgery › Helicobacter pylori-related gastroenterology studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
Keywords
Campylobacter jejuni, host adaptation, gene expression regulation, persistent infection, acute infection, iron acquisition, controlled human infection model, therapeutic target
MeSH terms
Rifaximin, Animals, Bacterial Proteins, Campylobacter Infections, Chickens, Ciprofloxacin, Flagella, Foodborne Diseases, Humans, Intestines, Membrane Proteins, Genetic Variation, Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial, Campylobacter jejuni, Azithromycin

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review