A deep‐sea bacterium related to coastal marine pathogens

• Published in: Environmental Microbiology
• Main Authors: Lasa, Aide, Auguste, Manon, Lema, Alberto, Oliveri, Caterina, Borello, Alessio, Taviani, Elisa, Bonello, Guido, Doni, Lapo, Millard, Andrew, Bruto, Maxime, Romalde, Jesus, Yakimov, Michail, Balbi, Teresa, Pruzzo, Carla, Canesi, Laura, Vezzulli, Luigi
• Other Authors: Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra dell'Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV), Universita degli studi di Genova, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela Spain (USC ), University of Leicester, Laboratoire de Biologie Intégrative des Modèles Marins (LBI2M), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Station biologique de Roscoff (SBR), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology (IRBIM)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2021
• Subjects: [SDE]Environmental Sciences; Pacific; Crassostrea gigas; Pacific oyster
• Online Access: https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03253974; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03253974/document; https://hal.sorbonne-universite.fr/hal-03253974/file/1462-2920.15629.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1111/1462-2920.15629

International audience 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 (3309m 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 adaptations 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 infection in farmed oysters. The results of functional in vitro assays on immunocytes (hemocytes) 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, that might have played an evolutionary role in the origin of coastal marine pathogens.