Project description:Although many members of the genus Vibrio are known to inhabit the marine photic zone, an understanding of the influence of light on the molecular physiology of Vibrio spp. has largely been neglected. To begin to characterize the photophysiology of one such Vibrio sp. (Vibrio campbellii ATCC strain BAA-1116) we used microarray-based expression profiling to compare the transcriptomes of illuminated versus dark cell cultures. Specficially, we compared the transcriptomes of wild type V. campbellii (STR) cells that were cultured in M9 minimal salts medium plus glucose under two conditions: (i) after 24 hours of continuous dark and (ii) after a 12 hour dark:12 hour light cycle (white light illumination at 54 µmol photons s-1 m-2). The results revealed a large photostimulon (differential expression of ~20% of the V. campbellii genome; adjusted p value < 0.0001) that surprisingly included ~75% of the type III secretion system (T3SS) genes which were found to be 1.6 – 5.4X more abundant in illuminated cultures. These findings, which were confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription PCR and quantitative membrane proteomics, strongly suggest that the photostimulon of strain BAA-1116 includes the T3SS.
Project description:Although many members of the genus Vibrio are known to inhabit the marine photic zone, an understanding of the influence of light on the molecular physiology of Vibrio spp. has largely been neglected. To begin to characterize the photophysiology of one such Vibrio sp. (Vibrio campbellii ATCC strain BAA-1116) we used microarray-based expression profiling to compare the transcriptomes of illuminated versus dark cell cultures. Specficially, we compared the transcriptomes of wild type V. campbellii (STR) cells that were cultured in M9 minimal salts medium plus glucose under two conditions: (i) after 24 hours of continuous dark and (ii) after a 12 hour dark:12 hour light cycle (white light illumination at 54 M-BM-5mol photons s-1 m-2). The results revealed a large photostimulon (differential expression of ~20% of the V. campbellii genome; adjusted p value < 0.0001) that surprisingly included ~75% of the type III secretion system (T3SS) genes which were found to be 1.6 M-bM-^@M-^S 5.4X more abundant in illuminated cultures. These findings, which were confirmed by quantitative reverse transcription PCR and quantitative membrane proteomics, strongly suggest that the photostimulon of strain BAA-1116 includes the T3SS. Five biological replicates of V. campbellii BAA-1116 (STR) were grown to log phase (200 rpm, 30M-BM-0C, 25 mL M9 minimal salts medium plus glucose in 125 mL baffled Erlenmeyer flasks) under continuous dark for 24 hours or under a 12 hour dark:12 hour light cycle (white light illumination at 54 M-BM-5mol photons s-1 m-2) and total RNA was extracted from 1.0E+9 cells. Messenger RNA was isolated from the total RNA extracts treated with DNase, labeled with biotin, fragmented and hybridized to V. campbellii BAA-1116 whole genome microarrays (520694F, Affymetrix).
Project description:Vibrio campbellii BB120 (ATCC BAA-1116, previously designated as Vibrio harveyi) is a fundamental model strain for studying population density-based cell-to-cell communication, known as quorum sensing, among gram-negative bacteria. In V. campbellii BB120, sensing of autoinducers at high cell densities activates the expression of the master transcriptional regulator, LuxR, which controls the expression of genes involved in group behaviors. Unlike BB120, the Vibrio campbellii environmental isolate DS40M4 was recently shown to be capable of natural transformation, a process by which bacteria take up exogenous DNA and incorporate it into their genome via homologous recombination. Here, we compare other phenotypes between DS40M4 and BB120. We find that DS40M4 has a faster growth rate and stronger type VI secretion-mediated cell killing, whereas BB120 forms more robust biofilms and is bioluminescent. We exploited the power of natural transformation to rapidly generate >30 mutant strains to explore the function of DS40M4-encoded homologs of the BB120 quorum-sensing system. Our results show that DS40M4 has a similar quorum-sensing circuit to BB120 but with three distinct differences: 1) DS40M4 lacks the canonical HAI-1 autoinducer LuxM synthase but has an active LuxN receptor, 2) the quorum regulatory small RNAs (Qrrs) are not solely regulated by autoinducer signaling through the response regulator LuxO, and 3) the DS40M4 LuxR regulon is <100 genes, which is relatively small compared to the >400 genes regulated in BB120. This work illustrates that DS40M4 is a tractable and relevant model strain for studying quorum-sensing phenotypes in Vibrio campbellii.
Project description:Vibrio campbellii is a gram-negative bacterial pathogen that is both free-living and a pathogen of marine organisms and exhibits swimming motility via a single, polar flagellum. Swimming motility is a critical virulence factor in V. campbellii pathogenesis, and disruption of the flagellar motor significantly decreases host mortality. However, while V. campbelli encodes homologs of flagellar and chemotaxis genes conserved by other members of the Vibrionaceae, the regulatory network governing these genes have not been explored. We systematically deleted all 63 known flagellar and chemotaxis genes in V. campbellii and examined their effects on motility compared to their homologs in other Vibrios. We specifically focused on assessing the roles of the core flagellar regulators of the flagellar regulatory hierarchy established in other Vibrios: rpoN, flrA, flrC, and fliA. Although V. campbellii transcription of flagellar and chemotaxis genes is governed by a multi-tiered regulatory hierarchy similar to other Vibrios, we observed two critical differences: the σ54-dependent regulator FlrA is dispensable for motility, and Class II gene expression is independent of σ54 regulation. Our genetic and phenotypic dissection of the V. campbellii flagellar regulatory network highlights the differences that have evolved in flagellar regulation across the Vibrionaceae.
Project description:Vibrio campbellii BAA-1116 was used as model organism from the Harveyi clade to understand how melanization affected cellular phenotype, metabolism and virulence. An in-frame deletion of the homogentisate-1,2-dioxygenase (hmgA) gene resulted in the overproduction of a pigment in cell culture supernatants and cellular membranes that was identified as pyomelanin. Unlike previous demonstrations in Vibrio cholerae, Burkholderia cepacia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, the pigmented V. campbellii mutant did not show increased UV or hydrogen peroxide resistance and was found to be ~2.7 times less virulent then the wild type strain in Penaeus monodon shrimp virulence assays. Microarray-based transcriptomic analyses revealed that the deletion of the hmgA gene and subsequent pyomelanin production negatively effected the expression of 129 genes involved in protein translation, cell division, membrane transport, electron transfer and amino acid utilization. The response was mediated in part by an impairment of the quorum sensing regulon as transcripts of the quorum sensing high cell density master regulator LuxR and other operonic members of this regulon were significantly repressed in the hmgA mutant. Taken together, the results suggest that the pyomelanization of V. campbellii sufficiently impairs the metabolic activities of this organism and renders it less fit and virulent then its isogenic wild type strain.