Locally-sourced Strains

Like a husky and a dachshund, two strains of the same bacteria species can have very different characteristics, honed in different parts of the world. Salmonella Dublin (pictured, green, infecting human intestinal lining cells) is a bacteria that causes serious blood infection in humans all around the world (not just in Dublin). Researchers examined two main types, and 1300 different strains from 13 countries to determine the genetic foundation behind important differences. They found that Salmonella Dublin from the USA was more likely to be resistant to antibiotic treatment – a growing global treatment issue – than Australian counterparts, and that they all lack a key snippet of DNA that many new vaccines target. This helps narrow down potential treatment options locally and management plans globally, while understanding how evolutionary pressures in different regions have led to particular characteristics may point to new strategies to counter the looming threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

Website

• Image from work by Cheryll M Sia and colleagues
• Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne at The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Melbourne, Australia
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in eLife, June 2025