Stochastic modelling for detecting interactions and evidence of selection between phase variable genes of Campylobacter jejuni (360G-Wellcome-206874_Z_17_Z)

Recently, the laboratories of Dr. Mike Jones (School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, Nottingham) and Dr. Chris Bayliss (Genetics Department, Leicester) generated a large amount of in vivo data collected from two populations of birds at three time points during colonisation of chickens by Campylobacter jejuni. One of the populations was immunised prior to administering Campylobacter jejuni to the birds while the other population was not immunised and serves as a control group. The immunisation was with a whole cell lysate of the bacterium, which elicited C. jejuni-specific serum antibodies but did not prevent colonisation. The observation points include inoculum (which was the same for both groups), one time point during the life of a bird (anal swabs) and a final time point when swabs and post-mortem caecal samples were collected. This project aims to determine how immunisation affects specific patterns of switching in the phase-variable genes of Campylobacter jejuni occurring during host adaptation of this foodborne pathogen. To analyse the data and make qualitative and quantitative conclusions, a variety of statistical techniques will be used in combination with mutation only and mutation-selection models.