The protein-protein interaction network of Salmonella enterica, Campylobacter jejuni and Clostridium perfringens

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With increasing public pressure to eliminate antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) from the Canadian poultry industry, affordable and broadly implementable alternatives that minimize risk of infection from enteric pathogens such as Clostridium perfringens, as well as those of food safety concern (e.g. Campylobacter jejuni and Salmonella enterica) are urgently needed. To this end, AbCelex Technologies Inc. are pioneering the use of antibody based feed additives (nanobodies) that target the reduction of zoonotic pathogens in poultry production. A key challenge in this technology is identifying bacterial proteins that represent amenable targets for nanobody development. A significant criteria is ensuring that nanobodies have high affinity but broad cross-reactivity across many different strains of the pathogens being targeted. Here our aim is to integrate recently generated maps of physical membrane protein complexes, derived for Eschericia coli, together with genome sequence data for a wide variety of strains of S. enterica, C. jejuni and C. perfringens, to identify those components that are well conserved as well as their role in virulence pathways. Such components represent the next generation of targets for nanobody development and will be validated through exisiting proprietary platform at AbCelex as well as a collaboration with Dr Terebiznik. Ultimately this research will help lay the foundation for novel nanobody antimicrobials that will help control pathogen burden across the poultry sector in Canada.