Pushing the limits of STEC molecular risk assessment: identification of genes specifically induced in vivo as potential new genetic biomarkers

2017

National audience; Epidemiologic studies reveal that only few virulence factors are frequently associated with Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) strains that cause severe disease in humans. Among them, Shiga toxins (Stx) is required for the development of the most severe symptoms in STEC infected patients but is not strictly sufficient to make an E. coli strain pathogenic to human. Indeed, many STEC strains isolated from rearing animals have never been implicated in human disease. It therefore appears crucial to increase our knowledge on STEC pathogenesis at the molecular level. We developed a RIVET (Recombination-based in vivo expression technology) strategy in order to identif…