What the kinome reveals about resistance to foodborne pathogens

Authors: Arsenault, Ryan; Johnson, Casey

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/10/2025
Publication Date: 12/19/2025
Citation: Arsenault, R.J., Johnson, C.N. 2025. What the kinome reveals about resistance to foodborne pathogens. Poultry Science. 105(2). Article 106252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2025.106252.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2025.106252

Interpretive Summary: Even though animals like chickens, cows, and pigs share many of the same genes, they still look and behave very differently. As scientists study how genes act to generate proteins—starting from DNA to RNA to protein—they notice that the differences between species become more obvious. These differences are shaped by many factors, including how genes are turned on or off, how proteins are made and folded, and how cells respond to their environment. One key part of this process involves protein kinases, which are like switches inside cells that help control how the body uses energy and reacts to threats like bacteria. These switches work quickly and don’t always need the cell to make new proteins, which is useful when the body needs to respond fast—like when it's low on nutrients or fighting an infection. This work focused on how these kinase switches affect the ability of chickens to resist Salmonella, a bacteria that can cause food poisoning. The work discovered that certain signaling pathways—especially one called PI3K-AKT-mTOR—play a major role in whether a chicken gets sick or stays healthy. By targeting these pathways, chicken health can be improved. This could be done by breeding chickens that are naturally more resistant or by adding special nutrients to their feed. These strategies may help reduce the spread of foodborne illnesses and make poultry safer for people to eat.

Technical Abstract: While the genetic similarities between vertebrates have been remarked on with each new complete genome sequenced, the physiological and phenotypic differences between agricultural species remain clear even to the casual observer. As one moves along the path of molecular biology, from DNA to RNA to protein, the distinctions between species increase. The separation between species further increases when the active sites of protein are considered. Phenotype is dictated by gene expression patterns, response to environmental stimuli, epigenetic alterations, protein translation, protein folding and interactions, post-translational modifications, and a host of other mechanisms. Studying the changes in protein kinase activity is as close as we can come to studying phenotype and remain at a molecular level. Intracellular metabolic responses, specifically, depend on these kinase switches and are often transcriptionally independent; an organism must respond to the availability of nutrients and does not have time to engage the transcription and translation machinery to take up and consume sources of energy. Thus, studying kinase activity allows us to study metabolism alongside gene expression dependent responses such as most immune responses. Over many years of study of poultry in the context of foodborne pathogens, especially Salmonella species, a few kinase dependent pathways and energy sensors have emerged as critical to resistance or susceptibility. The central immunometabolic signaling hubs, such as PI3K-AKT-mTOR, have been shown to be part of the immunometabolic physiological responses key to resistance or susceptibility in chickens. Salmonella infections have a significant impact on kinases in these signaling hubs, while the most promising interventions target these hubs for modulation. Directing breeding selection criteria or feed additive interventions to these hubs and critical activating/deactivating control points is a promising approach in controlling these foodborne pathogens in poultry.