Identification of in vivo-induced genes during infection of chickens with Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis.

Chickens are an important source of food worldwide and are often infected with food-poisoning serovars of Salmonella enterica, frequently Salmonella Enteritidis (SE), without exhibiting clinical signs of disease. Ivi (in vivo induced) genes identified using in vivo-induced antigen technology (IVIAT) are expressed only during bacterial infection and have the potential value of identifying epidemic strains and antigens which can form the basis for sub-unit vaccine development. We applied IVIAT to SE strain 50041 and identified 42 ivi genes. Eight representative ivi genes were further confirmed by qRT-PCR as being expressed only in vivo within 48 h of infection compared with that of in vitro-cultured. Although our results indicated that the identified ivi genes are expressed only in vivo, further research is needed to elucidate the exact roles of these genes during infection and pathogenesis.