TITLE:
Age Does Not Affect the Induction of Mortality by the Foodborne Pathogen Salmonella enterica in Caenorhabditis elegans
AUTHORS:
Dawn M. F. Burns, James M. Harper, Aaron M. Lynne
KEYWORDS:
Salmonella enterica, Caenorhabditis elegans, Aging, Infection
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Microbiology,
Vol.7 No.10,
October
31,
2017
ABSTRACT: Salmonella is a common cause of foodborne illness within the United States
with the severity of the infection being a factor of both the age and overall
health of the infected individual. The nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans
has proven to be a useful model to study infection dynamics of pathogenic
bacteria, including Salmonella enterica, and its short lifespan makes it a powerful
model system to assess the effect of organismal age on infection severity.
In this study, we infected C. elegans with each of 6 serovars of S. enterica at
1, 3 or 5 days of worm age and monitored their survival. Worms infected with
E. coli OP50 were used as a control. Infection with S. enterica resulted in a
significant reduction in mean longevity relative to OP50 (p