Ph.D thesis of Charlotte Riou Delacourcelle (2024 - 2027)

Campylobacter remains the leading cause of bacterial enteritis worldwide, and has been the leading cause of zoonosis in the European Union for over 15 years. Several attempts to implement means of control have been evaluated in order to reduce the risk of campylobacteriosis, including the challenge of identifying stress biomarkers to predict the pathogen's behavior to stresses experienced during food processing. The objective of this thesis is in line with the research work carried out by UMR SECALIM on Campylobacter, its response to stress & the search for biomarkers. This thesis aims to identify genetic biomarkers associated with Campylobacter's response to various stresses encountered in production environments, in order to predict the bacterium's behavior. The characterization of the phenotypic response of several Campylobacter jejuni strains of diverse origin (isolated from the slaughterhouse environment, chicken carcasses and clinical) to process-relevant stresses, followed by the identification of genetic variants associated with these traits, will be carried out using a GWAS (Genome-Wide Association Studies) approach. In a second phase, we will complete this analysis by exploring the metabolic modeling of C. jejuni through an in silico study. This work will be carried out in close collaboration with (1) the European Campylobacter Reference Laboratory at Nantes University (UMR CNRS / IMT LS2N).