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Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus
Vibrio europaeus is an emergent pathogen affecting clams, oysters and scallops produced in the most important countries for bivalve aquaculture. Studies concerning virulence factors involved in the virulence of V. europaeus are very scarce despite its global significance for aquaculture. Zinc-metall...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9785129/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36557728 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10122475 |
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author | Martinez, Clara Rodriguez, Sergio Vences, Ana Barja, Juan L. Toranzo, Alicia E. Dubert, Javier |
author_facet | Martinez, Clara Rodriguez, Sergio Vences, Ana Barja, Juan L. Toranzo, Alicia E. Dubert, Javier |
author_sort | Martinez, Clara |
collection | PubMed |
description | Vibrio europaeus is an emergent pathogen affecting clams, oysters and scallops produced in the most important countries for bivalve aquaculture. Studies concerning virulence factors involved in the virulence of V. europaeus are very scarce despite its global significance for aquaculture. Zinc-metalloproteases have been described as a major virulence factor in some Vibrio spp., although their contribution and role in the virulence of V. europaeus is not clear. To address this, we have studied an extracellular zinc-metalloprotease (VemA) encoded by V. europaeus, which was identified as a vibriolysin, highly conserved in this species and homologous in other pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. Virulence challenge experiments demonstrated that infection processes were faster when Manila clam larvae and juveniles were infected with the wildtype rather than with a mutant defective in the vemA gene (ΔvemA). V. europaeus was able to resist the bactericidal action of mucus and displayed a chemotaxis ability favoured by VemA to colonize the body mucus of clams and form a biofilm. The overall results suggest that VemA, although it is not a major virulence factor, plays a role in the colonization of the Manila clam mucus, and thus boosts the infection process as we observed in virulence challenge experiments. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9785129 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-97851292022-12-24 Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus Martinez, Clara Rodriguez, Sergio Vences, Ana Barja, Juan L. Toranzo, Alicia E. Dubert, Javier Microorganisms Article Vibrio europaeus is an emergent pathogen affecting clams, oysters and scallops produced in the most important countries for bivalve aquaculture. Studies concerning virulence factors involved in the virulence of V. europaeus are very scarce despite its global significance for aquaculture. Zinc-metalloproteases have been described as a major virulence factor in some Vibrio spp., although their contribution and role in the virulence of V. europaeus is not clear. To address this, we have studied an extracellular zinc-metalloprotease (VemA) encoded by V. europaeus, which was identified as a vibriolysin, highly conserved in this species and homologous in other pathogenic and non-pathogenic species. Virulence challenge experiments demonstrated that infection processes were faster when Manila clam larvae and juveniles were infected with the wildtype rather than with a mutant defective in the vemA gene (ΔvemA). V. europaeus was able to resist the bactericidal action of mucus and displayed a chemotaxis ability favoured by VemA to colonize the body mucus of clams and form a biofilm. The overall results suggest that VemA, although it is not a major virulence factor, plays a role in the colonization of the Manila clam mucus, and thus boosts the infection process as we observed in virulence challenge experiments. MDPI 2022-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9785129/ /pubmed/36557728 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10122475 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Martinez, Clara Rodriguez, Sergio Vences, Ana Barja, Juan L. Toranzo, Alicia E. Dubert, Javier Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus |
title | Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus |
title_full | Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus |
title_fullStr | Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus |
title_full_unstemmed | Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus |
title_short | Role of the Vibriolysin VemA Secreted by the Emergent Pathogen Vibrio europaeus in the Colonization of Manila Clam Mucus |
title_sort | role of the vibriolysin vema secreted by the emergent pathogen vibrio europaeus in the colonization of manila clam mucus |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9785129/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36557728 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms10122475 |
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