Correlation between detection of a plasmid and high-level virulence of Vibrio nigripulchritudo, a pathogen of the shrimp Litopenaeus stylirostris.
Vibrio nigripulchritudo, the etiological agent of Litopenaeus stylirostris summer syndrome, is responsible for mass mortalities of shrimp in New Caledonia. Epidemiological studies led to the suggestion that this disease is caused by an emergent group of pathogenic strains. Genomic subtractive hybridization was carried out between two isolates exhibiting low and high virulence. Our subtraction library was constituted of 521 specific fragments; 55 of these were detected in all virulent isolates from our collection (n = 32), and 13 were detected only in the isolates demonstrating the highest pathogenicity (n = 19), suggesting that they could be used as genetic markers for high virulence capacity. Interestingly, 10 of these markers are carried by a replicon of 11.2 kbp that contains sequences highly similar to those of a plasmid detected in Vibrio shilonii, a coral pathogen. The detection of this plasmid was correlated with the highest pathogenicity status of the isolates from our collection. The origin and consequence of this plasmid acquisition are discussed.
Reynaud
Yann
Y
Laboratoire de Génétique et Pathologie, Ifremer, 17390 La Tremblade, France.
Saulnier
Denis
D
Mazel
Didier
D
Goarant
Cyrille
C
Le Roux
Frédérique
F
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D023061:Gene Order; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009510:New Caledonia; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D033561:Penaeidae / Q000382:microbiology*; D010957:Plasmids / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017385:Sequence Homology; D014733:Vibrio / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
D004269:DNA, Bacterial