Making Sense of the Biodiversity and Virulence of Listeria monocytogenes

Olivier Disson (1) , Alexandra Moura (1, 2, 3) , Marc Lecuit (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

1 Biologie des Infections - Biology of Infection
2 CNRL - Centre National de Référence Listeria - National Reference Center Listeria
3 CC-OMS / WHO-CC - Centre collaborateur de l'OMS Listeria / WHO Collaborating Centre Listeria
4 Service des Maladies infectieuses et tropicales [CHU Necker]
5 Imagine - U1163 - Imagine - Institut des maladies génétiques (IHU)

Manuscript Highlights  Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne opportunistic bacterial pathogen  Classical genetic approaches in reference strains allowed identification of core virulence genes  Investigation of the species diversity of L. monocytogenes allowed uncovering hypoand hypervirulent strains and new virulence genes  Hypervirulent strains are host-associated, whereas hypovirulent strains are associated with food-processing environments  Accumulation of loss-of-function mutations in virulence pathways leads to niche restriction and obligate saprophytism

Mots clés: Listeria monocytogenes; listeriosis; biodiversity; virulence; adaptation

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Médecine humaine et pathologie; Maladies infectieuses; Bactériologie

Olivier Disson, Alexandra Moura, Marc Lecuit. Making Sense of the Biodiversity and Virulence of Listeria monocytogenes. Trends in Microbiology, 2021, ⟨10.1016/j.tim.2021.01.008⟩. ⟨pasteur-03271346⟩