gbpA and chiA genes are not uniformly distributed amongst diverse Vibrio cholerae.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Fennell TG
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8461464 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:The chitin-binding protein GbpA of Vibrio cholerae has been recently described as a common adherence factor for chitin and intestinal surface. Using an isogenic in-frame gbpA deletion mutant, we first show that V. cholerae O1 El Tor interacts with mouse intestinal mucus quickly, using GbpA in a specific manner. The gbpA mutant strain showed a significant decrease in intestinal adherence, leading to less colonization and fluid accumulation in a mouse in vivo model. Purified recombinant GbpA (rGbpA) specifically bound to N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues of intestinal mucin in a dose-dependent, saturable manner with a dissociation constant of 11.2 microM. Histopathology results from infected mouse intestine indicated that GbpA binding resulted in a time-dependent increase in mucus secretion. We found that rGbpA increased the production of intestinal secretory mucins (MUC2, MUC3, and MUC5AC) in HT-29 cells through upregulation of corresponding genes. The upregulation of MUC2 and MUC5AC genes was dependent on NF-kappaB nuclear translocation. Interestingly, mucin could also increase GbpA expression in V. cholerae in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, we propose that there is a coordinated interaction between GbpA and mucin to upregulate each other in a cooperative manner, leading to increased levels of expression of both of these interactive factors and ultimately allowing successful intestinal colonization and pathogenesis by V. cholerae.
| S-EPMC2573318 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Vibrio cholerae is a bacterial pathogen that colonizes the chitinous exoskeleton of zooplankton as well as the human gastrointestinal tract. Colonization of these different niches involves an N-acetylglucosamine binding protein (GbpA) that has been reported to mediate bacterial attachment to both marine chitin and mammalian intestinal mucin through an unknown molecular mechanism. We report structural studies that reveal that GbpA possesses an unusual, elongated, four-domain structure, with domains 1 and 4 showing structural homology to chitin binding domains. A glycan screen revealed that GbpA binds to GlcNAc oligosaccharides. Structure-guided GbpA truncation mutants show that domains 1 and 4 of GbpA interact with chitin in vitro, whereas in vivo complementation studies reveal that domain 1 is also crucial for mucin binding and intestinal colonization. Bacterial binding studies show that domains 2 and 3 bind to the V. cholerae surface. Finally, mouse virulence assays show that only the first three domains of GbpA are required for colonization. These results explain how GbpA provides structural/functional modular interactions between V. cholerae, intestinal epithelium and chitinous exoskeletons.
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Project description:Natural transformation is one mechanism of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera. Recently, it was found that V. cholerae isolates from the Haiti outbreak were poorly transformed by this mechanism. Here, we show that an integrating conjugative element (ICE)-encoded DNase, which we name IdeA, is necessary and sufficient for inhibiting natural transformation of Haiti outbreak strains. We demonstrate that IdeA inhibits this mechanism of HGT in cis via DNA endonuclease activity that is localized to the periplasm. Furthermore, we show that natural transformation between cholera strains in a relevant environmental context is inhibited by IdeA. The ICE encoding IdeA is globally distributed. Therefore, we analyzed the prevalence and role for this ICE in limiting natural transformation of isolates from Bangladesh collected between 2001 and 2011. We found that IdeA(+) ICEs were nearly ubiquitous in isolates from 2001 to 2005; however, their prevalence decreased to ?40% from 2006 to 2011. Thus, IdeA(+) ICEs may have limited the role of natural transformation in V. cholerae. However, the rise in prevalence of strains lacking IdeA may now increase the role of this conserved mechanism of HGT in the evolution of this pathogen.
| S-EPMC4547284 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio cholerae are ubiquitous to estuarine and marine environments. These two species found in Mediterranean coastal systems can induce infections in humans. Environmental isolates of V. cholerae (n = 109) and V. parahaemolyticus (n = 89) sampled at different dates, stations and water salinities were investigated for virulence genes and by a multilocus sequence-based analysis (MLSA). V. cholerae isolates were all ctxA negative and only one isolate of V. parahaemolyticus displayed trh2 gene. Most Sequence Types (ST) corresponded to unique ST isolated at one date or one station. Frequent recombination events were detected among different pathogenic species, V. parahaemolyticus, V. cholerae, Vibrio mimicus, and Vibrio metoecus. Recombination had a major impact on the diversification of lineages. The genetic diversity assessed by the number of ST/strain was higher in low salinity condition for V. parahaemolyticus and V. cholerae whereas the frequency of recombination events in V. cholerae was lower in low salinity condition. Mediterranean coastal lagoon systems housed V. cholerae and V. parahaemolyticus with genetic diversities equivalent to the worldwide diversity described so far. The presence of STs found in human infections as well as the frequency of recombination events in environmental vibrios populations could predict a potential epidemiological risk.
| S-EPMC4503927 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The virulence of a pathogen is dependent on a discrete set of genetic determinants and their well-regulated expression. The ctxAB and tcpA genes are known to play a cardinal role in maintaining virulence in Vibrio cholerae, and these genes are believed to be exclusively associated with clinical strains of O1 and O139 serogroups. In this study, we examined the presence of five virulence genes, including ctxAB and tcpA, as well as toxR and toxT, which are involved in the regulation of virulence, in environmental strains of V. cholerae cultured from three different freshwater lakes and ponds in the eastern part of Calcutta, India. PCR analysis revealed the presence of these virulence genes or their homologues among diverse serotypes and ribotypes of environmental V. cholerae strains. Sequencing of a part of the tcpA gene carried by an environmental strain showed 97.7% homology to the tcpA gene of the classical biotype of V. cholerae O1. Strains carrying the tcpA gene expressed the toxin-coregulated pilus (TCP), demonstrated by both autoagglutination analysis and electron microscopy of the TCP pili. Strains carrying ctxAB genes also produced cholera toxin, determined by monosialoganglioside enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and by passage in the ileal loops of rabbits. Thus, this study demonstrates the presence and expression of critical virulence genes or their homologues in diverse environmental strains of V. cholerae, which appear to constitute an environmental reservoir of virulence genes, thereby providing new insights into the ecology of V. cholerae.
| S-EPMC92254 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Vibrio cholerae remains a major global health threat, disproportionately impacting parts of the world without adequate infrastructure and sanitation resources. In aquatic environments, V. cholerae exists both as planktonic cells and as biofilms, which are held together by an extracellular matrix. V. cholerae biofilms have been shown to be hyperinfective, but the mechanism of hyperinfectivity is unclear. Here we show that biofilm-grown cells, irrespective of the surfaces on which they are formed, are able to markedly outcompete planktonic-grown cells in the infant mouse. Using an imaging technique designed to render intestinal tissue optically transparent and preserve the spatial integrity of infected intestines, we reveal and compare three-dimensional V. cholerae colonization patterns of planktonic-grown and biofilm-grown cells. Quantitative image analyses show that V. cholerae colonizes mainly the medial portion of the small intestine and that both the abundance and localization patterns of biofilm-grown cells differ from that of planktonic-grown cells. In vitro biofilm-grown cells activate expression of the virulence cascade, including the toxin coregulated pilus (TCP), and are able to acquire the cholera toxin-carrying CTX? phage. Overall, virulence factor gene expression is also higher in vivo when infected with biofilm-grown cells, and modulation of their regulation is sufficient to cause the biofilm hyperinfectivity phenotype. Together, these results indicate that the altered biogeography of biofilm-grown cells and their enhanced production of virulence factors in the intestine underpin the biofilm hyperinfectivity phenotype.
| S-EPMC7245069 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Riboflavin is the precursor of important redox cofactors such as flavin mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide, required for several biological processes. Vibrio cholerae, a pathogenic bacterium responsible for the cholera disease, possesses the ability to biosynthesize de novo as well as to uptake riboflavin through the riboflavin biosynthetic pathway (RBP) and the RibN importer, respectively. The intra-organism relationship between riboflavin biosynthesis and uptake functions has not been studied. RESULTS:This work determined the transcriptional organization of RBP genes and ribN in V. cholerae through reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and analyzed their expression when growing with or without extracellular riboflavin using real time PCR. The RBP is organized in three transcriptional units, the major one containing ribD, ribE, ribA and ribH together with genes involved in functions not directly related to riboflavin biosynthesis such as nrdR and nusB. In addition, two independent monocistronic units contain ribA2 and ribB, the later conserving a putative FMN riboswitch. The ribN gene is encoded in operon with a gene coding for a predicted outer membrane protein and a gene encoding a protein with a glutaredoxin domain. Regulation analysis showed that among these transcriptional units, only ribB is negatively regulated by riboflavin and that its repression depends on the RibN riboflavin importer. Moreover, external riboflavin highly induced ribB transcription in a ?ribN strain. Also, a genomic database search found a negative correlation between the presence of nrdR and nusB and the FMN riboswitch in bacterial RBP operons. CONCLUSIONS:Growing in the presence of riboflavin downregulates only a single element among the transcriptional units of riboflavin supply pathways. Thus, endogenous riboflavin biosynthesis seems to be negatively regulated by extracellular riboflavin through its specific effect on transcription of ribB in V. cholerae.
| S-EPMC5312566 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Type VI secretion systems (T6SS) enable bacteria to engage neighboring cells in contact-dependent competition. In Vibrio cholerae, three chromosomal clusters each encode a pair of effector and immunity genes downstream of those encoding the T6SS structural machinery for effector delivery. Different combinations of effector-immunity proteins lead to competition between strains of V. cholerae, which are thought to be protected only from the toxicity of their own effectors. Screening of all publically available V. cholerae genomes showed that numerous strains possess long arrays of orphan immunity genes encoded in the 3' region of their T6SS clusters. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that these genes are highly similar to those found in the effector-immunity pairs of other strains, indicating acquisition by horizontal gene transfer. Extensive genomic comparisons also suggest that successive addition of effector-immunity gene pairs replaces ancestral effectors, yet retains the cognate immunity genes. The retention of old immunity genes perhaps provides protection against nearby kin bacteria in which the old effector was not replaced. This mechanism, combined with frequent homologous recombination, is likely responsible for the high diversity of T6SS effector-immunity gene profiles observed for V. cholerae and closely related species.
| S-EPMC5361080 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Cyclic diguanylate (c-di-GMP) is an allosteric activator and second messenger implicated in the regulation of a variety of biological processes in diverse bacteria. In Vibrio cholerae, c-di-GMP has been shown to inversely regulate biofilm-specific and virulence gene expression, suggesting that c-di-GMP signaling is important for the transition of V. cholerae from the environment to the host. However, the mechanism behind this regulation remains unknown. Recently, it was proposed that the PilZ protein domain represents a c-di-GMP-binding domain. Here we show that V. cholerae PilZ proteins bind c-di-GMP specifically and are involved in the regulation of biofilm formation, motility, and virulence. These findings confirm a role for PilZ proteins as c-di-GMP-sensing proteins within the c-di-GMP signaling network.
| S-EPMC2790426 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Vibrio cholerae is a diverse species of Gram-negative bacteria, commonly found in the aquatic environment and the causative agent of the potentially deadly disease cholera. These bacteria employ a type VI secretion system (T6SS) when they encounter prokaryotic and eukaryotic competitors. This contractile puncturing device translocates a set of effector proteins into neighboring cells. Translocated effectors are toxic unless the targeted cell produces immunity proteins that bind and deactivate incoming effectors. Comparison of multiple V. cholerae strains indicates that effectors are encoded in T6SS effector modules on mobile genetic elements. We identified a diverse group of chimeric T6SS adaptor proteins required for the translocation of diverse effectors encoded in modules. An example for a T6SS effector that requires T6SS adaptor protein 1 (Tap-1) is TseL found in pandemic V. cholerae O1 serogroup strains and other clinical isolates. We propose a model in which Tap-1 is required for loading TseL onto the secretion apparatus. After T6SS-mediated TseL export is completed, Tap-1 is retained in the bacterial cell to load other T6SS machines.
| S-EPMC4557670 | biostudies-literature