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Background: Compared to other zoonotic baaeria, Campylobaccer species are quite susceptible to environmental or technological stressors. This might be due to the lack of many stress response mechanisms described in other bacteria. So far, only for Campylobacter (C.) jejuni details of the heat stress response are known.
Objectives: The heat stress response of C. coli and C. lari was compared to the response of C. jejuni.
Methods: Survival rates and whole transcriptome analyses at 46°C were investigated for the strain C. jejuni NCTC 11168, C. coli RM2228 and C. lari RM2100.
Results: Under heat stress (46°C) C. jejuni showed the highest survival rates, followed by C. lari and C. coli. Transcriptomic analyses revealed that only 3 % of the genes in C. jejuni and approx. 20 % of the genes of C. coli and C. lari were differentially expressed after heat stress, respectively. The transcriptomic profiles showed enhanced gene expression of several chaperones in all strains, but differences in the gene expression of transcriptional regulators as well as for genes involved in metabolic pathways, translation processes and membrane components. However, the function of many of the differentially expressed gene is unknown so far.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that the heat stress response of C. coli and C. lari are more similar to each other compared to C. jejuni. This indicates that stress response mechanisms described for C. jejuni might be unique for this species and not necessarily transferable to other Campylobocter species.