{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,30]],"date-time":"2026-07-30T18:43:38Z","timestamp":1785437018254,"version":"3.56.0"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]],"date-time":"2026-04-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1777507200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","award":["2260895"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2260895"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"award":["2260895"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2260895"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/01h0zpd94","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Listeria monocytogenes (Lm) is an important zoonotic foodborne pathogen that causes severe rhombencephalitis in ruminants. The trigeminal ganglion is a critical node for Lm invasion of the central nervous system via neural pathways. However, the roles of key virulence factors InlA, InlB, and LLO from ovine-derived Lm in trigeminal ganglion neuron infection remain unclear. In this study, LM90SB2, an ovine-derived Lm strain isolated from a sheep with encephalitis in Xinjiang, China, was used as the wild type, and its \u0394InlAB double-gene deletion and \u0394InlABO triple-gene deletion mutants were constructed. Primary mouse trigeminal ganglion cells (TGCs) were infected with these strains, and cell-association and invasion assays, bacterial colonization analysis, cell scratch tests, Western blotting, and qRT-PCR were performed to explore the effects of InlA, InlB, and LLO on Lm infection of TGCs and their regulatory roles in host adhesion molecules N-cadherin and NCAM1. The results showed that the wild-type LM90SB2 had significantly stronger cell-association, invasion, and colonization abilities in TGCs than the \u0394InlAB and \u0394InlABO mutants (p &lt; 0.01 or p &lt; 0.0001). LM90SB2 infection significantly upregulated the mRNA and protein expression levels of N-cadherin and NCAM1 in TGCs and enhanced TGC migration, while these effects were gradually attenuated with the sequential deletion of InlA, InlB and LLO. This study clarifies the synergistic roles of InlA, InlB, and LLO in mediating the infection of trigeminal ganglion neurons by ovine-derived Lm and reveals the molecular mechanism by which Lm promotes neural invasion by regulating the expression of host cell adhesion molecules. Our findings provide important experimental data for elucidating the neural invasion pathway of Lm in ruminants and lay a theoretical foundation for the development of targeted prevention and control strategies for ruminant listeriosis in veterinary clinical practices.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16091383","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,1]],"date-time":"2026-05-01T06:50:01Z","timestamp":1777618201000},"page":"1383","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Synergistic Roles of InlA, InlB and LLO in the Infection of Trigeminal Ganglion Neurons by Ovine-Derived Listeria monocytogenes LM90SB2"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Yue","family":"Lv","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiuyan","family":"Deng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ye","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yuxuan","family":"Lu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jiahui","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jingjing","family":"Ren","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jianjun","family":"Jiang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Shihezi University, Shihezi 832003, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,30]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"526","DOI":"10.1089\/fpd.2024.0029","article-title":"Prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in Milk and Dairy Product Supply Chains: A Global Systematic Review and Meta-analysis","volume":"21","author":"Li","year":"2024","journal-title":"Foodborne Pathog. 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