Gut inflammation provides a respiratory electron acceptor for Salmonella

By Sebastian E. Winter, Parameth Thiennimitr, M. Winter, B. P. Butler, D. Huseby, R. Crawford, J. Russell, C. Bevins, L. G. Adams, R. Tsolis and 2 more. Nature, 2010

1,255 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) causes acute gut inflammation by using its virulence factors to invade the intestinal epithelium and survive in mucosal macrophages. The inflammatory response enhances the transmission success of S. Typhimurium by promoting its outgrowth in the gut lumen through unknown mechanisms. Here we show that reactive oxygen species generated during inflammation react with endogenous, luminal sulphur compounds (thiosulphate) to form a new respiratory electron acceptor, tetrathionate. The genes conferring the ability to use tetrathionate as an electron acceptor produce a growth advantage for S. Typhimurium over the competing microbiota in the lumen of the inflamed gut. We conclude that S. Typhimurium virulence factors induce host-driven production of a new electron acceptor that allows the pathogen to use respiration to compete with fermenting gut microbes. Thus the ability to trigger intestinal inflammation is crucial for the biology of this diarrhoeal pathogen.

Subfields: Endocrinology, Food Science, Nutrition and Dietetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e904d0f93f140a11532e342cd94a88e1750452e1

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Endocrinology

1. G. Núñez
2. P. Cossart
3. N. Inohara
4. M. Zeng

In Food Science

1. M. Zeng
2. G. Núñez
3. N. Inohara
4. J. Vila
5. A. Fàbrega
6. P. Cossart

In Nutrition and Dietetics

1. G. Núñez
2. N. Inohara
3. M. Zeng

Citations in the corpus

• Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium Skills To Succeed in the Host: Virulence and Regulation (2013, background): “This advantageous ability is particularly important under the anaerobic growth conditions encountered in the intestinal mucus layer, since it confers the opportunity to outgrow the fermenting commensal competitors (86).”
• Intestinal inflammation allows Salmonella to use ethanolamine to compete with the microbiota (2011, background): “Typhimurium unable to induce intestinal inflammation in the mouse colitis model (5, 6, 8).”
• How bacterial pathogens colonize their hosts and invade deeper tissues. (2015, background): “Mucosal 128 inflammation also leads to the production of specific compounds that can be used by 129 pathogens such as particular glycosylated proteins or tetrathionate [27],[28].”
• Colonocyte metabolism shapes the gut microbiota (2018, background): “enterica–induced colitis generates additional electron acceptors for anaerobic respiration, including nitrate (75, 76) and tetrathionate (77) (Fig.”
• Gut Microbiota and Immune System Interactions (2020, background): “Salmonella typhimurium is one such pathogen that induces inflammation responses that alter the composition of the gut microbiota and promote its own growth in mouse models [116,117].”
• Gut microbiota: Role in pathogen colonization, immune responses, and inflammatory disease (2017, background): “the competing fermenting gut microbes in the inflamed gut (185, 186).”