Campylobacter adaptation during acute and persistent human infections

Campylobacter jejuni infections are a leading cause bacterial food-borne diarrheal illness worldwide, and Campylobacter infections in children are associated with stunted growth and therefore long-term deficits into adulthood. Despite this global impact on health and human capital, how zoonotic C. jejuni responds to the human host remains unclear. Here we use a controlled clinical trial of human infection to characterize C. jejuni transcriptional and genetic adaptations in vivo, along with a non-human primate infection model to validate our approach. C. jejuni Isolate sequencing reveals genetic and transcriptional changes that are the result of human passage in a highly controlled setting.