Purdue University doctoral student Dongqi Liu has identified a previously unknown strategy that the foodborne bacterium Listeria monocytogenes uses to invade and infect humans and animals.
“Listeria is a huge problem in the food industry and for people who get infected,” said Arun Bhunia, a food microbiology professor in the Department of Food Science at Purdue. L. monocytogenes infects an estimated 1,600 each year in the U.S., resulting in about 260 deaths. At highest risk are pregnant women, unborn fetuses, immune-compromised and elderly people.
Bhunia’s previous research has shown that the Listeria adhesion protein (LAP) plays an important role in helping L. monocytogenes to pass through the gut barrier.
But a question lingered about the LAP. After the pathogen secretes LAP, the protein stays on the bacterium’s surface. How it does so remained a mystery. LAP must stay fastened to the bacterial surface for Listeria to cause infection.
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FoodWorld 