-
Melanization and pathogenicity in the insect, tenebrio molitor, and the crustacean, pacifastacus leniusculus, by aeromonas hydrophila AH-3
- Back
Document Title
Melanization and pathogenicity in the insect, tenebrio molitor, and the crustacean, pacifastacus leniusculus, by aeromonas hydrophila AH-3
Author
Noonin C., Jiravanichpaisal P., Söderhäll I., Merino S., Tomás J.M., Söderhäll K.
Name from Authors Collection
Affiliations
Department of Comparative Physiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, National Science and Technology Development Agency, Bangkok, Thailand; Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Biología, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Type
Article
Source Title
PLoS ONE
ISSN
19326203
Year
2010
Volume
5
Issue
12
Open Access
Gold, Green
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0015728
Abstract
Aeromonas hydrophila is the most common Aeromonas species causing infections in human and other animals such as amphibians, reptiles, fish and crustaceans. Pathogenesis of Aeromonas species have been reported to be associated with virulence factors such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS), bacterial toxins, bacterial secretion systems, flagella, and other surface molecules. Several mutant strains of A. hydrophila AH-3 were initially used to study their virulence in two animal species, Pacifastacus leniusculus (crayfish) and Tenebrio molitor larvae (mealworm). The AH-3 strains used in this study have mutations in genes involving the synthesis of flagella, LPS structures, secretion systems, and some other factors, which have been reported to be involved in A. hydrophila pathogenicity. Our study shows that the LPS (O-antigen and external core) is the most determinant A. hydrophila AH-3 virulence factor in both animals. Furthermore, we studied the immune responses of these hosts to infection of virulent or non-virulent strains of A. hydrophila AH-3. The AH-3 wild type (WT) containing the complete LPS core is highly virulent and this bacterium strongly stimulated the prophenoloxidase activating system resulting in melanization in both crayfish and mealworm. In contrast, the ΔwaaE mutant which has LPS without O-antigen and external core was non-virulent and lost ability to stimulate this system and melanization in these two animals. The high phenoloxidase activity found in WT infected crayfish appears to result from a low expression of pacifastin, a prophenoloxidase activating enzyme inhibitor, and this gene expression was not changed in the ΔwaaE mutant infected animal and consequently phenoloxidase activity was not altered as compared to non-infected animals. Therefore we show that the virulence factors of A. hydrophila are the same regardless whether an insect or a crustacean is infected and the Oantigen and external core is essential for activation of the proPO system and as virulence factors for this bacterium. © 2010 Noonin et al.
Industrial Classification
Knowledge Taxonomy Level 1
Knowledge Taxonomy Level 2
Knowledge Taxonomy Level 3
License
CC BY
Rights
Author
Publication Source
Scopus