TY - JOUR AU - Oh, Euna AU - Chui, Linda AU - Bae, Junghee AU - Li, Vincent AU - Ma, Angela AU - Mutschall, Steven AU - Taboada, Eduardo AU - McMullen, Lynn AU - Jeon, Byeonghwa T1 - Frequent Implication of Multistress-Tolerant Campylobacter jejuni in Human Infections T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2018 VL - 24 IS - 6 SP - 1037 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Campylobacter jejuni, a major cause of bacterial foodborne illnesses, is considered highly susceptible to environmental stresses. In this study, we extensively investigated the stress tolerance of 121 clinical strains of C. jejuni against 5 stress conditions (aerobic stress, disinfectant exposure, freeze-thaw, heat treatment, and osmotic stress) that this pathogenic bacterium might encounter during foodborne transmission to humans. In contrast to our current perception about high stress sensitivity of C. jejuni, a number of clinical strains of C. jejuni were highly tolerant to multiple stresses. We performed population genetics analysis by using comparative genomic fingerprinting and showed that multistress-tolerant strains of C. jejuni constituted distinct clades. The comparative genomic fingerprinting subtypes belonging to multistress-tolerant clades were more frequently implicated in human infections than those in stress-sensitive clades. We identified unique stress-tolerant C. jejuni clones and showed the role of stress tolerance in human campylobacteriosis. KW - Campylobacter jejuni KW - bacteria KW - multistress tolerant KW - pathogen survival KW - transmission KW - campylobacteriosis KW - human infections KW - aerobic stress KW - disinfectant exposure KW - freeze-thaw KW - heat treatment KW - osmotic stress KW - Edmonton KW - Alberta KW - Canada DO - 10.3201/eid2406.171587 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/24/6/17-1587_article ER - End of Reference