Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Description
Salmonella enterica is a foodborne pathogen commonly found in agricultural facilities; its prevalence, as well as increasing levels of disinfectant- and antibiotic-resistance, has significant costs for agriculture as well as human health. In an effort to identify potential new inhibitors of S. enterica on abiotic surfaces, we developed a biomolecule screen of nutrient-type compounds because nutrients would have lower toxicity in animal facilities and bacterial nutrient utilization pathways might prove less susceptible to the development of bacterial resistance. After screening 285 nutrient-type compounds, we identified ten that significantly inhibited the ability of S. enterica to colonize a plastic surface. After conducting a dose-response curve, salicylic acid was selected for further testing due to its low minimal inhibitory concentration (62.5 μM) as well as a low total inhibitory concentration (250 μM). Salicylic acid was also able to inhibit surface colonization of a wide range of bacterial pathogens, suggesting that our biomolecule screen might have broader application beyond S. enterica. Finally, we determined that salicylic acid was also able to inhibit S. enterica colonization of an organic surface on eggshells. Together, these results suggest that nutrient-type biomolecules may provide an avenue for preventing resistant bacteria from contaminating surfaces.
Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Citation Information
Headrick, Joseph; Ohayon, Amital; Elliott, Shannon; Schultz, Jacob; Mills, Erez; and Petersen, Erik, "Biomolecule screen identifies several inhibitors of Salmonella enterica surface colonization" (2024). Faculty Open Access Works. 12.
https://dc.etsu.edu/faculty-open-works/12
Copyright Statement
© 2025 Headrick, Ohayon, Elliott, Schultz, Mills and Petersen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.