title: Distribution and pathogenic relationship of virulence associated genes among Vibrio alginolyticus from the mariculture systems.
abstract: Vibrio alginolyticus has been confirmed as an important pathogen for aquatic animals. However, the pathogenic mechanism of V. alginolyticus is not completely understood. A total of 31 isolates of V. alginolyticus from sea water, fish and shrimp on the mariculture systems were fingerprinted by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. The pathogenicity of these isolates was tested by challenge and the 21 genes associated with the virulence of Vibrio cholerae or Vibrio parahaemolyticus were examined in V. alginolyticus using PCR. The results showed that the 31 V. alginolyticus isolates belonged to 26 PFGE genotypes and the isolates from different source had different genotypes. Nine of the 31 isolates were confirmed as pathogenic strains by challenge. Moreover, 12 vibrio virulence genes were detected in this study. Of the detected genes, VCtoxR, VCtoxS, hlyA, VPtoxR and tlh were found in both pathogenic and non-pathogenic isolates. However, the other 7 virulence genes, ctxB, zot, tagA, stn, sto, tdh and trh, were only present in pathogenic isolates. Analysis of the relationship between virulence associated genes and pathogenicity of V. alginolyticus provides a possible explanation that the pathogenic mechanism of V. alginolyticus might be similar to that of V. parahaemolyticus instead of V. cholerae.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Bio-resources Sustainable Utilization, CAS LMB, Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology of Guangdong Province and Chinese Academy of Sciences LAMB, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 164 West Xingang Road, Guangzhou 510301, PR China.
authors.forename: Chunhua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Chaoqun
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Hongyan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Chang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Luo
mesh_terms: D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D005838:Genotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012623:Seawater / Q000382:microbiology*; D044149:Vibrio alginolyticus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics; D014871:Water Microbiology