The combination of different bioinformatics methods has brought new small proteins from salmonella to light. Credit: Sandy Westermann / SCIGRAPHIX. Read Time:
Salmonella are bacteria that can cause food poisoning with severe diarrhea. If they penetrate from the intestine into the blood system, this can lead to sepsis, life-threatening inflammatory reactions in the entire organism. Since salmonellae are also becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, new approaches are being sought to combat them.
An international research team, led by scientists from Würzburg, shows how to succeed in this search in the new research journal microLife.
More than 100 new proteins found
In a bioinformatic reassessment of the Salmonella genome, the team led by JMU doctoral student Elisa Venturini identified many unknown small proteins that may play a crucial role in infection. As a result, the number of known small Salmonella proteins has grown by 139 to over 600.