Biological and transcriptional studies reveal VmeL is involved in motility, biofilm formation and virulence in Vibrio parahaemolyticus
Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a marine pathogen thought to be the leading cause of seafood-borne gastroenteritis globally, urgently requiring efficient management methods. V. parahaemolyticus encodes 12 resistance/nodulation/division (RND) efflux systems. However, research on these systems is still in...
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Published in | Frontiers in microbiology Vol. 13; p. 976334 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Frontiers Media S.A
09.08.2022
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Vibrio parahaemolyticus
is a marine pathogen thought to be the leading cause of seafood-borne gastroenteritis globally, urgently requiring efficient management methods.
V. parahaemolyticus
encodes 12 resistance/nodulation/division (RND) efflux systems. However, research on these systems is still in its infancy. In this study, we discovered that the inactivation of VmeL, a membrane fusion protein within the RND efflux systems, led to reduction of the ability of biofilm formation. Further results displayed that the decreased capacity of Congo red binding and the colony of Δ
vmeL
is more translucent compared with wild type strains, suggested reduced biofilm formation due to decreased production of biofilm exopolysaccharide upon
vmeL
deletion. In addition, the deletion of
vmeL
abolished surface swarming and swimming motility of
V. parahaemolyticus
. Additionally, deletion of
vmeL
weakened the cytotoxicity of
V. parahaemolyticus
towards HeLa cells, and impaired its virulence in a murine intraperitoneal infection assay. Finally, through RNA-sequencing, we ascertained that there were 716 upregulated genes and 247 downregulated genes in Δ
vmeL
strain. KEGG enrichment analysis revealed that quorum sensing, bacterial secretion systems, ATP-binding cassette transporters, and various amino acid metabolism pathways were altered due to the inactivation of
vmeL
. qRT-PCR further confirmed that genes accountable to the type III secretion system (T3SS1) and lateral flagella were negatively affected by
vmeL
deletion. Taken together, our results suggest that VmeL plays an important role in pathogenicity, making it a good target for managing infection with
V. parahaemolyticus. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Axel Cloeckaert, Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement (INRAE), France This article was submitted to Infectious Agents and Disease, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology Reviewed by: Nicky O’Boyle, University College Cork, Ireland; Vanessa Ante, Texas A&M Health Science Center, United States; Kunihiko Nishino, Osaka University, Japan |
ISSN: | 1664-302X 1664-302X |
DOI: | 10.3389/fmicb.2022.976334 |