Salmonella Essay

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Salmonella are gram-negative bacteria that have been one of the major causes of food poisoning for many years. There are only two species of Salmonella; Salmonella bongori and Salmonella enterica. Salmonella has two phospholipid membranes and the peptidoglycan layer is located between the two membranes. There is an inner plasma membrane and an outer membrane. The space in between these membranes is the periplasm. The periplasm contains proteins that use electron transport chains and concentration gradients to gain energy. The outer membrane of salmonella contains lipopolysaccharide. Salmonella is rod shaped and it has flagella all around the cell body. This is called peritrichous flagella. The DNA of Salmonella is primarily found on one chromosome, …show more content…

When first exposed to the antibiotic treatment high volumes of bacteria are destroyed. After initial treatment, the rate of bacteria death decreases dramatically. Studies have shown that after ten days of treatment there are still detectable amounts of Salmonella left in the tissues of the body. Researchers that study this hypothesized that the bacteria was able to resist the antibody through a phenotypic change. Normally antibody resistance is achieved through a genotypic change in the bacteria. The Salmonella seem to achieve resistance by switching to slow rates of growth after the antibody is introduced into the system. It is not clear how this causes antibody resistance but during studies, researchers found that all the surviving Salmonella bacteria in the cell were a slow-growing sub population of Salmonella. Dendritic cells and macrophages take up these slow growing Salmonella and they are able to live in the macrophages inside of Salmonella containing vacuoles that they cause the macrophages to produce. It is unknown whether or not the change to slow-growth is cause by phagocytosis of the bacteria or because of inherent variation but it is know that this is what allows the bacteria to resist antibiotics. Salmonella is primarily transferred through infected foods. Food can be infected during the processing and handling of the food. To avoid infection you should always wash your hands before touching food especially if you have just come from the bathroom. You should also wash the food under running water. Finally, you should not allow any of your food to come into contact with other raw

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