Dataset Information

Piscirickettsia salmonis Cryptic Plasmids: Source of Mobile DNA and Virulence Factors.

ABSTRACT: Four large cryptic plasmids were identified in the salmon pathogen Piscirickettsia salmonis reference strain LF-89. These plasmids appeared highly novel, with less than 7% nucleotidic identity to the nr plasmid database. Plasmid copy number analysis revealed that they are harbored in chromosome equivalent ratios. In addition to plasmid-related genes (plasmidial autonomous replication, partitioning, maintenance, and mobilization genes), mobile genetic elements such as transposases, integrases, and prophage sequences were also identified in P. salmonis plasmids. However, bacterial lysis was not observed upon the induction of prophages. A total of twelve putative virulence factors (VFs) were identified, in addition to two global transcriptional regulators, the widely conserved CsrA protein and the regulator Crp/Fnr. Eleven of the putative VFs were overexpressed during infection in two salmon-derived cellular infection models, supporting their role as VFs. The ubiquity of these plasmids was also confirmed by sequence similarity in the genomes of other P. salmonis strains. The ontology of P. salmonis plasmids suggests a role in bacterial fitness and adaptation to the environment as they encode proteins related to mobilization, nutrient transport and utilization, and bacterial virulence. Further functional characterization of P. salmonis plasmids may improve our knowledge regarding virulence and mobile elements in this intracellular pathogen.

SUBMITTER: Ortiz-Severin J

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6963756 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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<i>Piscirickettsia salmonis</i> Cryptic Plasmids: Source of Mobile DNA and Virulence Factors.

Ortiz-Severín Javiera J Travisany Dante D Maass Alejandro A Chávez Francisco P FP Cambiazo Verónica V

Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) 20191128 4

Four large cryptic plasmids were identified in the salmon pathogen <i>Piscirickettsia salmonis</i> reference strain LF-89. These plasmids appeared highly novel, with less than 7% nucleotidic identity to the nr plasmid database. Plasmid copy number analysis revealed that they are harbored in chromosome equivalent ratios. In addition to plasmid-related genes (plasmidial autonomous replication, partitioning, maintenance, and mobilization genes), mobile genetic elements such as transposases, integra ...[more]

PMID: 31795181

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Project description:Piscirickettsiosis is a fish disease caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Piscirickettsia salmonis. This disease has a high socio-economic impact on the Chilean salmonid aquaculture industry. The bacterium has a cryptic character in the environment and their main reservoirs are yet unknown. Bacterial biofilms represent a ubiquitous mechanism of cell persistence in diverse natural environments and a risk factor for the pathogenesis of several infectious diseases, but their microbiological significance for waterborne veterinary diseases, including piscirickettsiosis, have seldom been evaluated. This study analyzed the in vitro biofilm behavior of P. salmonis LF-89T (genogroup LF-89) and CA5 (genogroup EM-90) using a multi-method approach and elucidated the potential arsenal of virulence of the P. salmonis LF-89T type strain in its biofilm state. P. salmonis exhibited a quick kinetics of biofilm formation that followed a multi-step and highly strain-dependent process. There were no major differences in enzymatic profiles or significant differences in cytotoxicity (as tested on the Chinook salmon embryo cell line) between biofilm-derived bacteria and planktonic equivalents. The potential arsenal of virulence of P. salmonis LF-89T in biofilms, as determined by whole-transcriptome sequencing and differential gene expression analysis, consisted of genes involved in cell adhesion, polysaccharide biosynthesis, transcriptional regulation, and gene mobility, among others. Importantly, the global gene expression profiles of P. salmonis LF-89T were not enriched with virulence-related genes upregulated in biofilm development stages at 24 and 48 h. An enrichment in virulence-related genes exclusively expressed in biofilms was also undetected. These results indicate that early and mature biofilm development stages of P. salmonis LF-89T were transcriptionally no more virulent than their planktonic counterparts, which was supported by cytotoxic trials, which, in turn, revealed that both modes of growth induced important and very similar levels of cytotoxicity on the salmon cell line. Our results suggest that the aforementioned biofilm development stages do not represent hot spots of virulence compared with planktonic counterparts. This study provides the first transcriptomic catalogue to select specific genes that could be useful to prevent or control the (in vitro and/or in vivo) adherence and/or biofilm formation by P. salmonis and gain further insights into piscirickettsiosis pathogenesis.

Project description:The aquaculture industry has confronted severe economic losses due to infectious diseases in the last years. Piscirickettsiosis or Salmonid Rickettsial Septicaemia (SRS) is the bacterial disease caused by Piscirickettsia salmonis. This Gram-negative, non-motile, cellular pathogen has the ability to infect, survive, replicate, and propagate in salmonid monocytes/macrophages generating a systemic infection characterized by the colonization of several organs including kidney, liver, spleen, intestine, brain, ovary and gills. In this study, we attempted to determine whether global gene expression differences can be detected in different genetic groups of Atlantic salmon as a result of Piscirickettsia salmonis infection. Moreover, we sought to characterize the fish transcriptional response in order to reveal the mechanisms that might confer resistance in Atlantic salmon to an infection with Piscirickettsia salmonis. In doing so, after challenging with Piscirickettsia salmonis, we selected the families with the highest (HS) and the lowest (LS) recorded susceptibility for gene expression analysis using 32K cGRASP microarrays. Our results revealed in LS families expression changes are linked to iron depletion, as well as, low contents of iron in kidney cells and low bacterial load, indicated that the iron-withholding strategy of innate immunity is part of the mechanism of resistance against Piscirickettsia salmonis. This information contributes to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of resistance to Piscirickettsia salmonis infection in Atlantic salmon and to identify new candidate genes for selective breeding programmes. Forty full-sibling families of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) were infected by intraperitoneal injection with 0.2 mL Piscirickettsia salmonis (PS889, isolated from Oncorhynchus kisutch, 1M-CM-^W104 PFU/mL). After forty days, the fishes were harvested and the cumulative mortality (dead fish / total fish) for each family was calculated. For the second challenge, the six families with the highest cumulative mortality levels were considered of relatively high susceptibility (HS) and the six families with the lowest cumulative mortality levels were considered of relatively low susceptibility (LS) to the infection. Five control and five infected fish from three HS and three LS families were analyzed. For each HS and LS family, pools of RNA from control and infected fish were prepared separately and were reverse transcribed. Four slides were for each used family hybridized including two dye-swaped slides. Labeled samples were hybridized on a 32K cDNA microarray, developed at the Consortium for Genomics Research on All Salmonids Project (cGRASP), GEO accession number: GPL8904.

Dataset Information

Piscirickettsia salmonis Cryptic Plasmids: Source of Mobile DNA and Virulence Factors.

Publications

<i>Piscirickettsia salmonis</i> Cryptic Plasmids: Source of Mobile DNA and Virulence Factors.

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