MI012-07 Screens of C. jejuni in murine models

Campylobacter jejuni is a globally distributed human pathogen, a leading cause of food borne enteritis, and causes chronic neurological and joint diseases. In 3 years, we delivered reproducible mouse models of C. jejuni colonization  and enteritis. Here, we propose to develop standardized methods for screening in C. jejuni these models: Aim 1) Determining organ specific recovery of in the murine model, Aim 2) C. jejuni C. jejuni Screening strains from patients with different virulence phenotypes, Aim 3) Screening C. jejuni targeted gene knockouts with complementation, and Aim 4) Screening of a IVET library. These C. jejuni results will provide proof of concept that these models constitute an adequate test of colonization in vivo and virulence in an environment and can be used to identify genes that are specific to infection and to proposed virulence mechanisms. Subsequent to these aims, we will compare gene content and/or C. jejuni gene expression of strains having different colonization/virulence phenotypes C. jejuni (virotypes/pathotypes) and strains before and after adaptation by mouse passage using a C. jejuni supplemented full-ORF microarray and new 454 genome sequencing technology. These analyses C. jejuni will provide SOPs for genetic analyses and an expanded list of genes that play important roles in C. jejuni colonization and virulence. These SOPs will permit determination of the roles of candidate C. jejuni virulence genes in colonization and pathogenesis and provide strains and phenome information to the scientific community.