Proteome analysis of virulent Aeromonas hydrophila reveals the upregulation of iron acquisition systems in the presence of a xenosiderophore.

The Gram-negative bacterium, Aeromonas hydrophila, has been responsible for extensive losses in the catfish industry for over a decade. Due to this impact, there are ongoing efforts to understand the basic mechanisms that contribute to virulent A. hydrophila (vAh) outbreaks. Recent challenge models demonstrated that vAh cultured in the presence of the iron chelating agent deferoxamine mesylate (DFO) were more virulent to channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus). Interestingly, differential gene expression of select iron acquisition genes was unremarkable between DFO and non-DFO cultures, posing the question: why the increased virulence? The current work sought to evaluate growth characteristics and protein expression of vAh after the addition of DFO. A comparative proteome analysis revealed differentially expressed proteins among tryptic soy broth (TSB) and TSB + DFO treatments. Upregulated proteins identified among the TSB + DFO treatment were enriched for gene ontology groups including iron ion transport, siderophore transport and siderophore uptake transport, all iron acquisition pathways. Protein-protein interactions were also evaluated among the differentially expressed proteins and predicted that many of the upregulated iron acquisition proteins likely form functional physiological networks. The proteome analysis of the vAh reveals valuable information about the basic biological processes likely leading to increased virulence during iron restriction in this organism.