Project description:Identification of a pathogen is a critical first step in the epidemiology and subsequent management of a disease. A limited number of pathogens have been identified for diseases contributing to the global decline of coral populations. Here we describe Vibrio coralliilyticus strain OCN008, which induces acute Montipora white syndrome (aMWS), a tissue loss disease responsible for substantial mortality of the coral Montipora capitata in K?ne'ohe Bay, Hawai'i. OCN008 was grown in pure culture, recreated signs of disease in experimentally infected corals, and could be recovered after infection. In addition, strains similar to OCN008 were isolated from diseased coral from the field but not from healthy M. capitata. OCN008 repeatedly induced the loss of healthy M. capitata tissue from fragments under laboratory conditions with a minimum infectious dose of between 10(7) and 10(8) CFU/ml of water. In contrast, Porites compressa was not infected by OCN008, indicating the host specificity of the pathogen. A decrease in water temperature from 27 to 23°C affected the time to disease onset, but the risk of infection was not significantly reduced. Temperature-dependent bleaching, which has been observed with the V. coralliilyticus type strain BAA-450, was not observed during infection with OCN008. A comparison of the OCN008 genome to the genomes of pathogenic V. coralliilyticus strains BAA-450 and P1 revealed similar virulence-associated genes and quorum-sensing systems. Despite this genetic similarity, infections of M. capitata by OCN008 do not follow the paradigm for V. coralliilyticus infections established by the type strain.
Project description:The coral pathogen, Vibrio coralliilyticus shows specific chemotactic search pattern preference for oxic and anoxic conditions, with the newly identified 3-step flick search pattern dominating the patterns used in oxic conditions. We analyzed motile V. coralliilyticus cells for behavioral changes with varying oxygen concentrations to mimic the natural coral environment exhibited during light and dark conditions. Results showed that 3-step flicks were 1.4× (P?=?0.006) more likely to occur in oxic conditions than anoxic conditions with mean values of 18 flicks (95% CI?=?0.4, n?=?53) identified in oxic regions compared to 13 (95% CI?=?0.5, n?=?38) at anoxic areas. In contrast, run and reverse search patterns were more frequent in anoxic regions with a mean value of 15 (95% CI?=?0.7, n?=?46), compared to a mean value of 10 (95% CI?=?0.8, n?=?29) at oxic regions. Straight swimming search patterns remained similar across oxic and anoxic regions with a mean value of 13 (95% CI?=?0.7, n?=?oxic: 13, anoxic: 14). V. coralliilyticus remained motile in oxic and anoxic conditions, however, the 3-step flick search pattern occurred in oxic conditions. This result provides an approach to further investigate the 3-step flick.
Project description:Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a Gram-negative marine bacterium. A limited population of the organisms causes acute gastroenteritis in humans. Almost all of the clinical V. parahaemolyticus isolates exhibit a beta-type hemolysis on Wagatsuma agar, known as the Kanagawa phenomenon (KP). KP is induced by the thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) produced by the organism, and has been considered a crucial marker to distinguish pathogenic strains from non-pathogenic ones. Since 1996, so-called “pandemic clones”, the majority of which belong to serotype O3:K6, have caused worldwide outbreaks of gastroenteritis. In this study, we used a DNA microarray constructed based on the genome sequence of a pandemic V. parahaemolyticus strain RIMD2210633 to examin the genomic composition of 22 strains of V. parahaemolyticus, including both pathogenic (pandemic as well as non-pandemic) and non-pathogenic strains. Over 85% of the RIMD2210633 genes were conserved in all the strains tested. Many of variably present genes formed gene clusters on the genome of RIMD2210633 and were probably acquired through lateral gene transfer. At least 70 genes over 10 loci were specifically present in the pandemic strains when compared with any of the non-pandemic strains, suggesting that the difference between pandemic and non-pandemic strains is not due to a simple genetic event. Only the genes in the 80-kb pathogenicity island (Vp-PAI) on chromosome II, including two tdh genes and a set of genes for the Type III secretion system, were detected only in the KP-positive pathogenic strains. These results strongly suggest that acquisition of this Vp-PAI was crucial for the emergence of V. parahaemolyticus strains that are pathogenic for humans. Keywords: comparative genomic hybridization, CGH
Project description:Here, we report the complete genome sequence of Vibrio coralliilyticus OCN008, a marine bacterium that infects reef-building coral. Previous sequencing efforts yielded an incomplete sequence (210 contigs). We used Nanopore and Illumina sequencing data to obtain complete sequences of the two circular chromosomes (3.48 and 1.91 Mb) and one megaplasmid (244.69 kb).