Vibrio parahaemolyticus risk assessment in the Pacific Northwest: it's not what's in the water.

The Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vp) is a major cause of illness associated with the consumption of raw or undercooked seafood, primarily oysters. This species is a natural member of the bacterial community in brackish waters and is bioaccumulated by oysters through filter feeding. Only a subset of strains is thought to be pathogenic. Currently known virulence markers include the gene for the thermostable direct hemolysin (tdh). In this work we analyzed water and oysters for total Vp and strains encoding tdh from 26 oyster-growing areas of the Puget Sound and Pacific coast of Washington state in 2007 and 2008. In addition, possible plankton-associated Vp were assessed from net tow samples. The density of both total and tdh+ Vp in the water column were considerably higher in 2008 than 2007. However, the concentrations of both total and tdh+ Vp in the oyster tissue was similar for both years. A high proportion of Vp strains in the water column was found to be tdh+ in both 2007 and 2008; however, tdh+ strains were detected at much lower levels in oysters. The data show that analysis of Vp density in the oysters is a better risk assessment tool than density in the overlying water column.

Comparative Genomic Analysis of Vibrio diabolicus and Six Taxonomic Synonyms: A First Look at the Distribution and Diversity of the Expanded Species.

Vibrio is a diverse genus of Gammaproteobacteria autochthonous to marine environments worldwide. Vibrio diabolicus and V. antiquarius were originally isolated from deep-sea hydrothermal fields in the East Pacific Rise. These species are closely related to members of the Harveyi clade (e.g., V. alginolyticus and V. parahaemolyticus) that are commonly isolated from coastal systems. This study reports the discovery and draft genome sequence of a novel isolate (Vibrio sp. 939) cultured from Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas). Questions surrounding the identity of Vibrio sp. 939 motivated a genome-scale taxonomic analysis of the Harveyi clade. A 49-genome phylogeny based on 1,109 conserved coding sequences and a comparison of average nucleotide identity (ANI) values revealed a clear case of synonymy between Vibrio sp. 939, V. diabolicus Art-Gut C1 and CNCM I-1629, V. antiquarius EX25 and four V. alginolyticus strains (E0666, FF273, TS13, and V2). This discovery expands the V. diabolicus species and makes available six additional genomes for comparative genomic analyses. The distribution of the expanded species is thought to be global given the range of isolation sources (horse mackerel, seawater, sediment, dentex, oyster, artemia and polycheate) and origins (China, India, Greece, United States, East Pacific Rise, and Chile). A subsequent comparative genomic analysis of this new eight-genome subclade revealed a high degree of individual genome plasticity and a large repertoire of genes related to virulence and defense. These findings represent a significant revision to the understanding of V. diabolicus and V. antiquarius as both have long been regarded as distinct species. This first look at the expanded V. diabolicus subclade suggests that the distribution and diversity of this species mirrors that of other Harveyi clade species, which are notable for their ubiquity and diversity.

The thermostable direct hemolysin-related hemolysin (trh) gene of Vibrio parahaemolyticus: Sequence variation and implications for detection and function.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a leading cause of bacterial food-related illness associated with the consumption of undercooked seafood. Only a small subset of strains is pathogenic. Most clinical strains encode for the thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) and/or the TDH-related hemolysin (TRH). In this work, we amplify and sequence the trh gene from over 80 trh+strains of this bacterium and identify thirteen genetically distinct alleles, most of which have not been deposited in GenBank previously. Sequence data was used to design new primers for more reliable detection of trh by endpoint PCR. We also designed a new quantitative PCR assay to target a more conserved gene that is genetically-linked to trh. This gene, ureR, encodes the transcriptional regulator for the urease gene cluster immediately upstream of trh. We propose that this ureR assay can be a useful screening tool as a surrogate for direct detection of trh that circumvents challenges associated with trh sequence variation.

Environmental influences on the seasonal distribution of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the Pacific Northwest of the USA.

Populations of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in the environment can be influenced by numerous factors. We assessed the correlation of total (tl+) and potentially virulent (tdh+) V. parahaemolyticus in water with three harmful algal bloom (HAB) genera (Pseudo-nitzschia, Alexandrium and Dinophysis), the abundance of diatoms and dinoflagellates, chlorophyll-a and temperature, salinity and macronutrients at five sites in Washington State from 2008-2009. The variability in V. parahaemolyticus density was explained predominantly by strong seasonal trends where maximum densities occurred in June, 2 months prior to the highest seasonal water temperature. In spite of large geographic differences in temperature, salinity and nutrients, there was little evidence of corresponding differences in V. parahaemolyticus density. In addition, there was no evident relationship between V. parahaemolyticus and indices of HAB genera, perhaps due to a lack of significant HAB events during the sampling period. The only nutrient significantly associated with V. parahaemolyticus density after accounting for the seasonal trend was silicate. This negative relationship may be caused by a shift in cell wall structure for some diatom species to a chitinous substrate preferred by V. parahaemolyticus. Results from our study differ from those in other regions corroborating previous findings that environmental factors that trigger vibrio and HAB events may differ depending on geographic locations. Therefore caution should be used when applying results from one region to another.

Population structure of clinical and environmental Vibrio parahaemolyticus from the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a common marine bacterium and a leading cause of seafood-borne bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. Although this bacterium has been the subject of much research, the population structure of cold-water populations remains largely undescribed. We present a broad phylogenetic analysis of clinical and environmental V. parahaemolyticus originating largely from the Pacific Northwest coast of the United States. Repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR (REP-PCR) separated 167 isolates into 39 groups and subsequent multilocus sequence typing (MLST) separated a subset of 77 isolates into 24 sequence types. The Pacific Northwest population exhibited a semi-clonal structure attributed to an environmental clade (ST3, N = 17 isolates) clonally related to the pandemic O3:K6 complex and a clinical clade (ST36, N = 20 isolates) genetically related to a regionally endemic O4:K12 complex. Further, the identification of at least five additional clinical sequence types (i.e., ST43, 50, 65, 135 and 417) demonstrates that V. parahaemolyticus gastroenteritis in the Pacific Northwest is polyphyletic in nature. Recombination was evident as a significant source of genetic diversity and in particular, the recA and dtdS alleles showed strong support for frequent recombination. Although pandemic-related illnesses were not documented during the study, the environmental occurrence of the pandemic clone may present a significant threat to human health and warrants continued monitoring. It is evident that V. parahaemolyticus population structure in the Pacific Northwest is semi-clonal and it would appear that multiple sequence types are contributing to the burden of disease in this region.

The use of polymerase chain reaction for the detection and speciation of bacterial bone and joint infection in children.

We evaluated 36 consecutive patients presenting with signs and symptoms of bacterial bone and joint infection and 10 control patients using bacterial cultures of blood and the presumed site of infection compared with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques using a universal primer and restriction endonuclease digestion. Of the 28 patients with definitive clinical and/or laboratory evidence of bacterial infection, 16 patients had positive bacterial cultures and 12 were PCR-positive. Twenty of 28 patients were either PCR- or culture-positive. Nine of the 16 subjects who had culture-positive samples also had PCR-positive samples (8 positive for the same organism and 1 with 2 organisms identified by culture, but only a single organism by PCR. Six culture positive patients were PCR-negative. Of the 12 patients who were culture-negative, 4 had bacterial genomic material present indicating infection. We conclude that current PCR methods are not superior to standard bacterial culture methods when applied to children with presumed bone or joint infections, but that PCR may complement existing microbiologic cultures for detection of bone and joint infections in children.

A real-time PCR assay for the rapid determination of 16S rRNA genotype in Vibrio vulnificus.

In a terminal restriction fragment polymorphism (T-RFLP) study, we recently reported a significant association between the type B 16S rRNA gene and clinical strains of Vibrio vulnificus associated with the consumption of raw oysters. In the present study we describe a real-time PCR assay for the rapid determination of the 16S rRNA type of V. vulnificus isolates. This assay was used to reexamine the 16S rRNA gene type in the strains studied previously by T-RFLP and additional isolates from selected sources. Analyses revealed that 15 of the strains (10 environmental and 5 clinical) previously found to be 16S rRNA type A actually appear to possess both the type A and B genes. The presence of both alleles was confirmed by cloning and sequencing both gene types from one strain. To our knowledge, this is the first report of 16S rRNA sequence heterogeneity within individual strains of V. vulnificus. The findings confirm the T-RFLP data that 16S rRNA type may be a useful marker for determining the clinical significance of V. vulnificus in disease in humans and cultured eels. The real-time PCR assay is much more rapid and less resource-intensive than T-RFLP, and should facilitate further study of the occurrence and distribution of the 16S rRNA genotypes of V. vulnificus. These studies should provide more definitive estimates of the risks associated with this organism and may lead to a better understanding of its virulence mechanism(s).

Atypical strains of Aeromonas salmonicida contain multiple copies of insertion element ISAsa4 useful as a genetic marker and a target for PCR assay.

The species Aeromonas salmonicida includes a quite complex group of pathogens that cause a variety of diseases in fishes. Best studied strains of this species are those of the subspecies salmonicida also referred to as 'typical' A. salmonicida, which cause furunculosis in salmonids. Less completely understood are bacteria assigned to other subspecies, e.g. achromogenes and masoucida, or those that cannot be assigned to a recognized subspecies. These strains are referred to collectively as 'atypical' A. salmonicida and cause diseases distinct from furunculosis, primarily affecting non-salmonids. In the course of a study to investigate the suitability of the gene product of tapA as a subunit vaccine, we discovered several atypical strains of A. salmonicida in which the tapA gene was interrupted by an insertion sequence (IS). Subsequent Southern blot analyses indicated that nearly all atypical strains (27 of 29) examined carry many copies of this IS, which we named ISAsa4. Genetic characterization of this IS element revealed it to be a member of the IS5 family, subgroup IS903. Aside from the presence of ISAsa4 in several atypical strains, the nucleotide sequence of tapA was virtually identical to that found in typical strains. This finding suggests that ISAsa4 might be a major source of genetic diversity among atypical strains which, unlike typical strains, are genetically heterogeneous. The presence of ISAsa4 in atypical strains may also help explain the host tropism of atypical strains of this bacterium. Using information on the nucleotide sequences of ISAsa4 from atypical strains of A. salmonicida, primers were designed to selectively amplify genomic DNA from most atypical strains.

Sequence polymorphism of the 16S rRNA gene of Vibrio vulnificus is a possible indicator of strain virulence.

Vibrio vulnificus exhibits considerable strain-to-strain variation in virulence. Attempts to associate phenotypic or genotypic characteristics with strain virulence have been largely unsuccessful. Based on a 17-nucleotide difference throughout the sequence of the small subunit 16S rRNA gene, there are two major groups of V. vulnificus designated types A and B. In a survey of the 16S rRNA genotype in 67 V. vulnificus human clinical and nonclinical strains, we determined that the majority of nonclinical isolates are type A (31 of 33) and that there is a statistically significant association between the type B genotype and human clinical strains (26 of 34).

Detection and identification of bacterial pathogens of fish in kidney tissue using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) analysis of 16S rRNA genes.

We report the application of a nucleic acid-based assay that enables direct detection and identification of bacterial pathogens in fish kidney tissue without the need for bacterial culture. The technique, known as terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), employs the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using a primer pair that targets 2 highly conserved regions of the gene that encodes for the 16S small subunit of the bacterial ribosome. Each primer is 5' labeled with a different fluorescent dye, which results in each terminus of the resulting amplicon having a distinguishable fluorescent tag. The amplicon is then digested with a series of 6 restriction endonucleases, followed by size determination of the 2 labeled terminal fragments by capillary electrophoresis with laser-induced fluorescence detection. Comparison of the lengths of the full set of 12 terminal fragments with those predicted based on analyses of GenBank submissions of 16S sequences leads to presumptive identification of the pathogen to at least the genus, but more typically the species level. Results of T-RFLP analyses of genomic DNA from multiple strains of a number of fish bacterial pathogens are presented. The assay is further demonstrated on fish kidney tissue spiked with a known number of cells of Flavobacterium psychrophilum where a detection limit of ca. 30 CFU mg(-1) of tissue was estimated. A similar detection limit was observed for several other gram-negative pathogens. This procedure was also used to detect Aeromonas salmonicida and Renibacterium salmoninarum in the kidney tissue of 2 naturally infected salmonids.