Collaboration and exchange of international researchers between groups, both in short stays and for the shared direction of doctoral theses

KBBE.2013.1.3.-05: Ecology of drug resistant bacteria and transfer of antimicrobial resistance throughout the food chain.

The previous group experience is in understanding the role of IncH plasmids in Salmonella biology. IncH plasmids are abundant within S. typhi strains (about 50% of them harbor these plasmids) and account for most of the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotypes of plasmid origin in this microorganism. In the recent past, the group has studied the regulation of the temperature-dependent conjugation of these plasmids, as well as the role of a global modulator encoded by the IncH plasmid R27, the H-NS protein. Recent data, yet unpublished, evidence that these plasmids strongly modify the global transcriptome of the host strain, modifying thus fitness. We propose identifying the modulators that facilitate plasmid-chromosome cross-talk. Interfering with these modulators might thus alter plasmid-chromosome cross-talk and hence reduce fitness of these strains, making them more sensitive to the host defenses, or leading to plasmid loss which, in turn, results in loss of the MDR phenotype.