Salmonella uses similar mechanism to infect plants and humans
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 08:30
in Health & Medicine
In recent years, it has become clear that food poisoning due to Salmonella typhimurium can be contracted not only by uncooked eggs and meat but also through eating contaminated raw vegetables and fruit. So far, it was unclear how these bacteria can infect humans and plants alike. A team associating researchers from INRA, CNRS and the Universities of Evry (France), Giessen (Germany) and Vienna (Austria), has shown that Salmonella suppress the defense systems of plants and humans by a similar mechanism. Moreover, the teams showed that plants contaminated with Salmonella are highly infectious to human cells and mice. The results were published in PLoS ONE on September 6, 2011.