Journal of Microbiology

The Microbiological Society of Korea (한국미생물학회)
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Swarming Differentiation of Vibrio vulnificus Downregulates the Expression of the vvhBA Hemolysin Gene via the LuxS Quorum-Sensing System

  • Kim Moon-Young (Research Center for Resistant Cells, Chosun University Medical School) ;
  • Park Ra-Young (Research Center for Resistant Cells, Chosun University Medical School) ;
  • Choi Mi-Hwa (Research Center for Resistant Cells, Chosun University Medical School) ;
  • Sun Hui-Yu (Research Center for Resistant Cells, Chosun University Medical School) ;
  • Kim Choon-Mee (Research Center for Resistant Cells, Chosun University Medical School) ;
  • Kim Soo-Young (Clinical Vaccine R&D Center, National Research Laboratory of Molecular Microbial Pathogenesis, Research Institute of Vibrio Infection and Genome Research Center for Enteropathogenic Bacteria, and Department of Microbiology, Chonnam National University Medical School) ;
  • Rhee Joon-Haeng (Clinical Vaccine R&D Center, National Research Laboratory of Molecular Microbial Pathogenesis, Research Institute of Vibrio Infection and Genome Research Center for Enteropathogenic Bacteria, and Department of Microbiology, Chonnam National University Medical School) ;
  • Shin Sung-Heui (Research Center for Resistant Cells, Chosun University Medical School)
  • Published : 2006.04.01
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Abstract

Swarming has proven to be a good in vitro model for bacterial surface adherence and colonization, and the swarming differentiation of a bacterium has been shown to be coupled with changes in the expression of virulence factors associated with its invasiveness, particularly in the early stages of infection. In this study, we attempted to determine whether the expression of vvhA, which encodes for hemolysin/cytolysin (VvhA), is either upregulated or downregulated during the swarming differentiation of V. vulnificus. The insertional inactivation of vvhA itself exerted no detectable effect on the expression of V. vulnificus swarming motility. However, in our lacZ-fused vvhA transcriptional reporter assay, vvhA expression decreased in swarming V. vulnificus as compared to non-swarming or planktonic V. vulnificus. The reduced expression of vvhA in swarming V. vulnificus increased as a result of the deletional inactivation of luxS, a gene associated with quorum sensing. These results show that vvhA expression in swarming V. vulnificus is downregulated via the activity of the LuxS quorum-sensing system, suggesting that VvhA performs no essential role in the invasiveness of V. vulnificus via the adherence to and colonization on the body surfaces required in the early stages of the infection. However, VvhA may playa significant role in the pathophysiological deterioration occurring after swarming V. vulnificus is differentiated into planktonic V. vulnificus.

Keywords

References

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