Mechanisms Underlying the Virulence Regulation of Vibrio alginolyticus ND-01 pstS and pstB with a Transcriptomic Analysis

Xin Yi; Xiaojin Xu; Xin Qi; Yunong Chen; Zhiqin Zhu; Genhuang Xu; Huiyao Li; Emma-Katharine Kraco; Haoyang Shen; Mao Lin; Jiang Zheng; Yingxue Qin; Xinglong Jiang

doi:10.3390/microorganisms10112093

Microorganisms (Oct 2022)

Mechanisms Underlying the Virulence Regulation of Vibrio alginolyticus ND-01 pstS and pstB with a Transcriptomic Analysis

Xin Yi,
Xiaojin Xu,
Xin Qi,
Yunong Chen,
Zhiqin Zhu,
Genhuang Xu,
Huiyao Li,
Emma-Katharine Kraco,
Haoyang Shen,
Mao Lin,
Jiang Zheng,
Yingxue Qin,
Xinglong Jiang

Affiliations

Xin Yi: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Xiaojin Xu: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Xin Qi: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Yunong Chen: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Zhiqin Zhu: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Genhuang Xu: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Huiyao Li: Fisheries Research Institute of Fujian, Xiamen 361013, China
Emma-Katharine Kraco: School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 600 East Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53204, USA
Haoyang Shen: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Mao Lin: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Jiang Zheng: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Yingxue Qin: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China
Xinglong Jiang: Key Laboratory of Healthy Mariculture for the East China Sea, Engineering Research Center of the Modern Technology for Eel Industry, Fisheries College, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10112093
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 10, no. 11
p. 2093

Abstract

Read online

Vibrio alginolyticus is a common opportunistic pathogen of fish, shrimp, and shellfish, and many diseases it causes can result in severe economic losses in the aquaculture industry. Causing host disease was confirmed by several virulence factors of V. alginolyticus. To date, there have been no reports on the effect of the pstS gene on its virulence regulation of V. alginolyticus. The virulence mechanism of target genes regulating V. alginolyticus is worthy of further study. Previous studies found that Fructus schisandrae (30 mg/mL) inhibited the growth of V. alginolyticus ND-01 (OD600 = 0.5) for 4 h, while the expressions of pstS and pstB were significantly affected by F. schisandrae stress. So, we speculated that pstS and pstB might be the virulence genes of V. alginolyticus, which were stably silenced by RNAi to construct the silencing strains pstS-RNAi and pstB-RNAi, respectively. After the expression of pstS or pstB gene was inhibited, the adhesion capacity and biofilm formation of V. alginolyticus were significantly down-regulated. The chemotaxis and biofilm formation ability of pstS-RNAi was reduced by 33.33% and 68.13% compared with the wild-type strain, respectively. Sequence alignment and homology analysis showed that pstS was highly conserved, which suggested that pstS played a vital role in the secretion system of V. alginolyticus. The pstS-RNAi with the highest silencing efficiency was selected for transcriptome sequencing. The Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs) and GO terms were mapped to the reference genome of V. alginolyticus, including 1055 up-regulated genes and 1134 down-regulated genes. The functions of the DEGs were analyzed by GO and categorized into different enriched functional groups, such as ribosome synthesis, organelles, biosynthesis, pathogenesis, and secretion. These DEGs were then mapped to the reference KEGG pathways of V. alginolyticus and enriched in commonalities in the metabolic, ribosomal, and bacterial secretion pathways. Therefore, pstS and pstB could regulate the bacterial virulence of V. alginolyticus by affecting its adhesion, biofilm formation ability, and motility. Understanding the relationship between the expressions of pstS and pstB with bacterial virulence could provide new perspectives to prevent bacterial diseases.

Published in Microorganisms

ISSN: 2076-2607 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Science: Biology (General)
Website: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/microorganisms

About the journal

Abstract

Keywords