Role of the toxR Gene from Fish Pathogen Vibiro alginolyticus in the Physiology and Virulence

Mechanisms Underlying the Virulence Regulation of Vibrio alginolyticus ND-01 pstS and pstB with a Transcriptomic Analysis

Vibrio alginolyticus is a common opportunistic pathogen of fish, shrimp, and shellfish, and many diseases it causes can result in severe economic losses in the aquaculture industry. Causing host disease was confirmed by several virulence factors of V. alginolyticus. To date, there have been no reports on the effect of the pstS gene on its virulence regulation of V. alginolyticus. The virulence mechanism of target genes regulating V. alginolyticus is worthy of further study. Previous studies found that Fructus schisandrae (30 mg/mL) inhibited the growth of V. alginolyticus ND-01 (OD600 = 0.5) for 4 h, while the expressions of pstS and pstB were significantly affected by F. schisandrae stress. So, we speculated that pstS and pstB might be the virulence genes of V. alginolyticus, which were stably silenced by RNAi to construct the silencing strains pstS-RNAi and pstB-RNAi, respectively. After the expression of pstS or pstB gene was inhibited, the adhesion capacity and biofilm formation of V. alginolyticus were significantly down-regulated. The chemotaxis and biofilm formation ability of pstS-RNAi was reduced by 33.33% and 68.13% compared with the wild-type strain, respectively. Sequence alignment and homology analysis showed that pstS was highly conserved, which suggested that pstS played a vital role in the secretion system of V. alginolyticus. The pstS-RNAi with the highest silencing efficiency was selected for transcriptome sequencing. The Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) and GO terms were mapped to the reference genome of V. alginolyticus, including 1055 up-regulated genes and 1134 down-regulated genes. The functions of the DEGs were analyzed by GO and categorized into different enriched functional groups, such as ribosome synthesis, organelles, biosynthesis, pathogenesis, and secretion. These DEGs were then mapped to the reference KEGG pathways of V. alginolyticus and enriched in commonalities in the metabolic, ribosomal, and bacterial secretion pathways. Therefore, pstS and pstB could regulate the bacterial virulence of V. alginolyticus by affecting its adhesion, biofilm formation ability, and motility. Understanding the relationship between the expressions of pstS and pstB with bacterial virulence could provide new perspectives to prevent bacterial diseases.

Intestinal morphology and microflora to Vibrio alginolyticus in pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

In recent years, the shrimp farming industry encountered significant economic losses induced by Vibrio alginolyticus. In this study, the influence of Vibrio alginolyticus on intestinal histomorphology and microbiome composition in Litopenaeus vannamei were studied. The results showed that the intestinal mucosal epithelial cells of Vibrio group (VA group) injected only with Vibrio alginolyticus showed large area exfoliation at 12 h, and the tissue morphology of intestine recovered at 48 h. Compared with the control group (CK group), the abundance of Proteobacteria was significantly higher (P < 0.05), while the abundance of Actinobacteria was significantly lower after infection with Vibrio alginolyticus. The abundance of Shewanella in intestinal microbiome of Litopenaeus vannamei was significantly higher at 12 h (P < 0.05), but the abundance of Candidatus_Bacilloplasma was significantly lower at 48 h after infection (P < 0.05). In VA group, the diversity of intestinal microbiome was significantly lower at 12 h, which could be caused by the proliferation of Candidatus_Bacilloplasma and Shewanella. All above findings suggested that the stability of the dynamic balance of microbiome in the intestine helped Litopenaeus vannamei to resist pathogen colonization.

ToxR modulates biofilm formation in fish pathogen Vibrio harveyi

Vibrio harveyi is a common aquaculture pathogen causing diseases in a variety of aquatic animals. toxR, a conserved virulence-associated gene in vibrios, is identified in V. harveyi 345, a pathogenic strain isolated from diseased fish. In this study, to gain insight into function of ToxR in V. harveyi, an in-frame deletion of the toxR gene was constructed to reveal the role of ToxR in the physiology and virulence of V. harveyi. The statistical analysis showed no significant differences in the growth ability, motility, extracellular protease secretion, antibiotic susceptibility, virulence by intraperitoneal injection and the ability of V. harveyi to colonize the spleen and liver tissues of the pearl gentian grouper between the wild-type (WT) and the toxR mutant. However, the deletion of toxR increased the biofilm formation. The structure of the V. harveyi biofilm was further analysed by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal laser scanning microscopy, and the results showed that deletion of toxR increased the number and density of V. harveyi biofilm. Since biofilm production is flagella, exopolysaccharide (EPS) and lipopolysaccharide dependent, 16 of V. harveyi biofilm-related genes were selected for further analysis. Based on quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR, the expression levels of these genes, including genes flrB, motY and mshA, flaE, flrA and gmhD, were significantly up-regulated in the ΔtoxR⁺ strain as compared with the WT⁺ and C-ΔtoxR strains during the early and mid-exponential, while epsG, flaA, flaE, flgD, flgE, flrB, flrC, lpxB, motY, mshA and scrG genes were inhibited because of deletion of the toxR gene in the stationary growth phase. Our results indicate that ToxR plays an important role in controlling the biofilm in V. harveyi.

Fast, simple and highly specific molecular detection of Vibrio alginolyticus pathogenic strains using a visualized isothermal amplification method

Background

Vibrio alginolyticus is an important pathogen that has to be closely monitored and controlled in the mariculture industry because of its strong pathogenicity, quick onset after infection and high mortality rate in aquatic animals. Fast, simple and specific methods are needed for on-site detection to effectively control outbreaks and prevent economic losses. The detection specificity towards the pathogenic strains has to be emphasized to facilitate pointed treatment and prevention. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based molecular approaches have been developed, but their application is limited due to the requirement of complicated thermal cycling machines and trained personnel.

Results

A fast, simple and highly specific detection method for V. alginolyticus pathogenic strains was established based on isothermal recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and lateral flow dipsticks (LFD). The method targeted the virulence gene toxR, which is reported to have good coverage for V. alginolyticus pathogenic strains. To ensure the specificity of the method, the primer-probe set of the RPA system was carefully designed to recognize regions in the toxR gene that diverge in different Vibrio species but are conserved in V. alginolyticus pathogenic strains. The primer-probe set was determined after a systematic screening of amplification performance, primer-dimer formation and false positive signals. The RPA-LFD method was confirmed to have high specificity for V. alginolyticus pathogenic strains without any cross reaction with other Vibrio species or other pathogenic bacteria and was able to detect as little as 1 colony forming unit (CFU) per reaction without DNA purification, or 170 fg of genomic DNA, or 6.25 × 10³ CFU/25 g in spiked shrimp without any enrichment. The method finishes detection within 30 min at temperatures between 35 °C and 45 °C, and the visual signal on the dipstick can be directly read by the naked eye. In an application simulation, randomly spiked shrimp homogenate samples were 100% accurately detected.

Conclusions

The RPA-LFD method developed in this study is fast, simple, highly specific and does not require complicated equipment. This method is applicable for on-site detection of V. alginolyticus pathogenic strains for the mariculture industry.

The role of rpoS in the regulation of Vibrio alginolyticus virulence and the response to diverse stresses

Vibrio alginolyticus is a leading aquatic pathogen, causing huge losses to aquaculture. rpoS has been proven to play a variety of important roles in stress response and virulence in several bacteria. In our previous study, upon treatment with Cu²⁺ , Pb²⁺ , Hg²⁺ and low pH, the expression levels of rpoS were downregulated as assessed by RNA-seq, while impaired adhesion ability was observed, indicating that rpoS might play roles in the regulation of adhesion. In the present study, the RNAi technology was used to knockdown rpoS in V. alginolyticus. In comparison with wild-type V. alginolyticus, RNAi-treated bacteria showed significantly impaired abilities of adhesion, growth, haemolytic, biofilm production, movement and virulence. Meanwhile, alterations of temperature, salinity, pH and starvation starkly affected rpoS expression. The present data suggested that rpoS is a critical regulator of virulence in V. alginolyticus; in addition, rpoS regulates bacterial adhesion in response to temperature, pH and nutrient content changes. These are helpful to explore its pathogenic mechanism and provide reference for disease control.

Relation between Biofilm and Virulence in Vibrio tapetis: A Transcriptomic Study

Marine pathogenic bacteria are able to form biofilms on many surfaces, such as mollusc shells, and they can wait for the appropriate opportunity to induce their virulence. Vibrio tapetis can develop such biofilms on the inner surface of shells of the Ruditapes philippinarum clam, leading to the formation of a brown conchiolin deposit in the form of a ring, hence the name of the disease: Brown Ring Disease. The virulence of V. tapetis is presumed to be related to its capacity to form biofilms, but the link has never been clearly established at the physiological or genetic level. In the present study, we used RNA-seq analysis to identify biofilm- and virulence-related genes displaying altered expression in biofilms compared to the planktonic condition. A flow cell system was employed to grow biofilms to obtain both structural and transcriptomic views of the biofilms. We found that 3615 genes were differentially expressed, confirming that biofilm and planktonic lifestyles are very different. As expected, the differentially expressed genes included those involved in biofilm formation, such as motility- and polysaccharide synthesis-related genes. The data show that quorum sensing is probably mediated by the AI-2/LuxO system in V. tapetis biofilms. The expression of genes encoding the Type VI Secretion System and associated exported proteins are strongly induced, suggesting that V. tapetis activates this virulence factor when living in biofilm.