Identification of the Invasion Determinants of Salmonella typhimurium for Cultured HEp-2 and HeLa Cells

Salmonella typhimurium is a causative agent of the common worldwide disease, salmonellosis. To identify putative invasion genes involved in Samonella infections, a S. typhimurium cosmid library was constructed in noninvasive E. coli DJl. The invasion efficiencies of the cosmid library for cultured HEp-2 and HeLa cells were estimated by tissue-culture invasion assay. 2 out of 1,000 transductants, DHl(pSI623) and DHl(pSI511) were able to invade the cells. Compared to E. coli by DHl(pSI511) increased 25- and 33 fold, respectively. The invasion efficiencies of HeLa cells by DHl(pSI623) increased 31- and 35 fold, respectively. This illustrates that the cosmid clones, DHl(pSI623) and DHl(pSI511) could harbor the invasion determinants derived from genomic DNA of S. typhimurium 82/6915, conferring the invasive characters for the cells.