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Data Protection Declaration
Imprint
Colonization mechanisms used by human pathogens on crop plants
Project
Project code: JKI-EP-08-2331
Contract period: 01.01.2020
- 31.12.2022
Purpose of research: Experimental development
Food-borne diseases outbreaks resulting from the consumption of contaminated fresh produces have been reported worldwide and have their number recently increased. Plants have emerged as a reservoir of human pathogens. Today it is recognized that several human pathogenic micro-organisms interact actively with plants. However, little is known about the mechanisms used by human pathogens to colonize survive in plants, to adapt to the plant environment and to persist in/on colonize plants. We need to understand those mechanisms if we like to propose new sanitary measures and agricultural management practices aiming to reduce human contamination and consequently increase human health. Salmonella is a very important pathogen worldwide and a serious public health problem with an estimated one million casualties and about 150 million human infections annually. Salmonella is currently the major zoonotic pathogen responsible for outbreaks linked to fresh produce consumption. While factors required for Salmonella animal infection are well characterized, little is known about the mechanisms used by this pathogen to colonize plants and counteract the plant immune system, especially in cultivated plants. The SafeTomato project falls within the ´One Health´ concept. It proposes for the first time a holistic analysis of the interaction of Salmonella with tomato plant at the whole plant level. Tomato plant was chosen as it is an economically relevant crop, which has often been associated with food-borne poisoning, including salmonellosis. Thus, the key objective of ´SafeTomato´ is to uncover the mechanistic bases of Salmonella colonization of the whole tomato plant in its environment. SafeTomato will provide the first comprehensive overview of the colonization process of tomato plants by Salmonella. In order to achieve our goals, we will take into consideration already published results on tomato fruit as well as our preliminary results on the interaction between Salmonel.
Section overview
Subjects
- Crop Protection
- Vegetable Gardening
Funding programme
Excutive institution
Institute for Epidemiology and Pathogen Diagnostics (JKI-EP)
