A deep-sea bacterium related to coastal marine pathogens |
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Authors: | Aide Lasa Manon Auguste Alberto Lema Caterina Oliveri Alessio Borello Elisa Taviani Guido Bonello Lapo Doni Andrew D. Millard Maxime Bruto Jesus L. Romalde Michail Yakimov Teresa Balbi Carla Pruzzo Laura Canesi Luigi Vezzulli |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Earth, Environmental and Life Sciences (DISTAV), University of Genoa, Genoa, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Italy;2. Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, CIBUS-Facultade de Bioloxía & Institute CRETUS, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Spain;3. Department of Genetics and Genome Biology, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, UK;4. Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Paris 06, CNRS, UMR 8227, Integrative Biology of Marine Models, Station Biologique de Roscoff CS 90074, Roscoff Cedex, F-29688 France;5. Institute of Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology, National Research Council (IRBIM-CNR), Messina, 98122 Italy |
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Abstract: | Evolution of virulence traits from adaptation to environmental niches other than the host is probably a common feature of marine microbial pathogens, whose knowledge might be crucial to understand their emergence and pathogenetic potential. Here, we report genome sequence analysis of a novel marine bacterial species, Vibrio bathopelagicus sp. nov., isolated from warm bathypelagic waters (3309 m depth) of the Mediterranean Sea. Interestingly, V. bathopelagicus sp. nov. is closely related to coastal Vibrio strains pathogenic to marine bivalves. V. bathopelagicus sp. nov. genome encodes genes involved in environmental adaptation to the deep-sea but also in virulence, such as the R5.7 element, MARTX toxin cluster, Type VI secretion system and zinc-metalloprotease, previously associated with Vibrio infections in farmed oysters. The results of functional in vitro assays on immunocytes (haemocytes) of the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, and of the early larval development assay in Mytilus support strong toxicity of V. bathopelagicus sp. nov. towards bivalves. V. bathopelagicus sp. nov., isolated from a remote Mediterranean bathypelagic site, is an example of a planktonic marine bacterium with genotypic and phenotypic traits associated with animal pathogenicity, which might have played an evolutionary role in the origin of coastal marine pathogens. |
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