Novel sRNA and regulatory genes repressing the adhesion of Salmonella enteritidis exposed to meat-related environment

Abstract Salmonella is the leading cause of infectious disease outbreaks associated with meat products, residual meat particles on food-contact surfaces can influence the biofilm formation of microorganisms. The transcriptional landscape and expression of novel small non-coding RNAs (sRNAs) were investigated during the biofilm formation of S. Enteritidis exposed to meat thawing loss broth (MTLB) in this study. The genes of csgB, adrA and fimH were differentially expressed. Notably, a total of nineteen candidate sRNAs predicted to be involved in the regulation of biofilm formation were discovered in S. Enteritidis. Four specific deletion mutants were successfully established, and further investigation indicated that these mutants improved their functions in swimming, swarming, and auto-aggregation, as well as their surface hydrophobicity. Moreover, these novel sRNAs repressed adhesion and biofilm formation of S. Enteritidis on stainless steel and polystyrene surfaces. These findings are beneficial for illustrating the complex regulatory networks of biofilm formation of Salmonella.