Revisiting Campylobacter jejuni Virulence and Fitness Factors: Role in Sensing, Adapting, and Competing

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of bacterial foodborne gastroenteritis world wide and represents a major public health concern. Over the past two decades, significant progress in functional genomics, proteomics, enzymatic-based virulence profiling (EBVP), and the cellular biology of C. jejuni have improved our basic understanding of this important pathogen. We review key advances in our understanding of the multitude of emerging virulence factors that influence the outcome of C. jejuni–mediated infections. We highlight, the spatial and temporal dynamics of factors that promote C. jejuni to sense, adapt and survive in multiple hosts. Finally, we propose cohesive research directions to obtain a comprehensive understanding of C. jejuni virulence mechanisms.

The Distribution of Campylobacter jejuni Virulence Genes in Genomes Worldwide Derived from the NCBI Pathogen Detection Database

“…Campylobacter is the leading cause of bacterial foodborne gastroenteritis in the world [4]. Within this genus, C. jejuni has always been the most relevant clinical [11,33,34], infectious [9], and epidemic zoonotic worldwide [35]. Here we combined more than forty thousand publicly available Campylobacter jejuni genomes of strains isolated from more than forty countries of five continents in the world.…”

“…[8][9][10]. It has the particular growth necessities apparent in a fragile organism; however, it has a complex array of fitness and virulence factors [11] that aid the bacterium to respond to the defense mounted by the host (adhesion, invasion, and temporary survival inside the human intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) in vitro). Collective components such as the helical shape, amphitrichous flagella, capsular polysaccharide (CPS), Lipooligosaccharide (LOS), O-linked glycosylation of flagellins, and genotypic and phenotypic variation owing to an augmented number of phase-variable loci are some particularities that promote the successful enteric lifestyle of C. jejuni [9].…”

Campylobacter jejuni Cytolethal Distending Toxin Induces GSDME-Dependent Pyroptosis in Colonic Epithelial Cells

“…Campylobacter jejuni is the leading cause of bacterial foodborne gastroenteritis in the world, which is responsible for at least 96 million cases of enteric infection globally each year ( Elmi et al., 2020 ). Several virulence factors are involved in the persistent infection and pathogenic process, of which cytolethal distending toxin (CDT) is the major bacterial cytotoxin that contributes to C. jejuni -related disease progression ( Smith and Bayles, 2006 ).…”

Campylobacter jejuni Virulence Factors Identified by Modulating Their Synthesis on Ribosomes With Altered rRNA Methylation

“…Provoking this range of pathogenic effects undoubtedly requires the coordinated expression of a series of C. jejuni genes that are specifically dedicated to virulence. For instance, this pathogen must first survive the handling and cleaning processes such as those involved in the slaughter of chickens and the preparation of meat products (Hermans et al, 2011;Rasschaert et al, 2020); then, after consumption, the pathogen must remain viable in the human gut to initiate the steps of colonization; and subsequently, when established, the visible symptoms of gastrointestinal disease ensue upon production of virulence factors including toxins (Kreling et al, 2020;Elmi et al, 2021). The molecular mechanisms that direct these steps in C. jejuni pathogenesis are presently largely unknown.…”