This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Faruque, S. M.
Right arrow Articles by Mekalanos, J. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Faruque, S. M.
Right arrow Articles by Mekalanos, J. J.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infection and Immunity, November 1999, p. 5723-5729, Vol. 67, No. 11
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Lysogenic Conversion of Environmental Vibrio mimicus Strains by CTXPhi

Shah M. Faruque,1,* M. Mostafizur Rahman,1 Asadulghani,1 K. M. Nasirul Islam,1 and John J. Mekalanos2

Molecular Genetics Laboratory, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh,1 and Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 021152

Received 3 May 1999/Returned for modification 16 July 1999/Accepted 17 August 1999

The filamentous bacteriophage CTXPhi , which encodes cholera toxin (CT) in toxigenic Vibrio cholerae, is known to propagate by infecting susceptible strains of V. cholerae by using the toxin coregulated pilus (TCP) as its receptor and thereby causing the origination of new strains of toxigenic V. cholerae from nontoxigenic progenitors. Besides V. cholerae, Vibrio mimicus strains which are normally TCP negative have also been shown to occasionally produce CT and cause diarrhea in humans. We analyzed nontoxigenic V. mimicus strains isolated from surface waters in Bangladesh for susceptibility and lysogenic conversion by CTXPhi and studied the expression of CT in the lysogens by using genetically marked derivatives of the phage. Of 27 V. mimicus strains analyzed, which were all negative for genes encoding TCP but positive for the regulatory gene toxR, 2 strains (7.4%) were infected by CTX-KmPhi , derived from strain SM44(P27459 ctx::km), and the phage genome integrated into the host chromosome, forming stable lysogens. The lysogens spontaneously produced infectious phage particles in the supernatant fluids of the culture, and high titers of the phage could be achieved when the lysogens were induced with mitomycin C. This is the first demonstration of lysogenic conversion of V. mimicus strains by CTXPhi . When a genetically marked derivative of the replicative form of the CTXPhi genome carrying a functional ctxAB operon, pMSF9.2, was introduced into nontoxigenic V. mimicus strains, the plasmid integrated into the host genome and the strains produced CT both in vitro and inside the intestines of adult rabbits and caused mild-to-severe diarrhea in rabbits. This suggested that in the natural habitat infection of nontoxigenic V. mimicus strains by wild-type CTXPhi may lead to the origination of toxigenic V. mimicus strains which are capable of producing biologically active CT. The results of this study also supported the existence of a TCP-independent mechanism for infection by CTXPhi and showed that at least one species of Vibrio other than V. cholerae may contribute to the propagation of the phage.


* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Laboratory Sciences Division, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B), GPO Box 128, Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh. Phone: 880 2 871751 to 880 2 871760. Fax: 880 2 872529 and 880 2 883116. E-mail: faruque{at}icddrb.org.


Infection and Immunity, November 1999, p. 5723-5729, Vol. 67, No. 11
0019-9567/99/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1999, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Polz, M. F, Hunt, D. E, Preheim, S. P, Weinreich, D. M (2006). Patterns and mechanisms of genetic and phenotypic differentiation in marine microbes. Phil Trans R Soc B 361: 2009-2021 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Faruque, S. M., Bin Naser, I., Fujihara, K., Diraphat, P., Chowdhury, N., Kamruzzaman, M., Qadri, F., Yamasaki, S., Ghosh, A. N., Mekalanos, J. J. (2005). Genomic Sequence and Receptor for the Vibrio cholerae Phage KSF-1{Phi}: Evolutionary Divergence among Filamentous Vibriophages Mediating Lateral Gene Transfer. J. Bacteriol. 187: 4095-4103 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Jermyn, W. S., Boyd, E. F. (2005). Molecular evolution of Vibrio pathogenicity island-2 (VPI-2): mosaic structure among Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio mimicus natural isolates. Microbiology 151: 311-322 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Brussow, H., Canchaya, C., Hardt, W.-D. (2004). Phages and the Evolution of Bacterial Pathogens: from Genomic Rearrangements to Lysogenic Conversion. Microbiol. Mol. Biol. Rev. 68: 560-602 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Chibani-Chennoufi, S., Bruttin, A., Dillmann, M.-L., Brussow, H. (2004). Phage-Host Interaction: an Ecological Perspective. J. Bacteriol. 186: 3677-3686 [Full Text]  
  • Jiang, S., Chu, W., Fu, W. (2003). Prevalence of Cholera Toxin Genes (ctxA and zot) among Non-O1/O139 Vibrio cholerae Strains from Newport Bay, California. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69: 7541-7544 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Broudy, T. B., Fischetti, V. A. (2003). In Vivo Lysogenic Conversion of Tox- Streptococcus pyogenes to Tox+ with Lysogenic Streptococci or Free Phage. Infect. Immun. 71: 3782-3786 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Li, M., Kotetishvili, M., Chen, Y., Sozhamannan, S. (2003). Comparative Genomic Analyses of the Vibrio Pathogenicity Island and Cholera Toxin Prophage Regions in Nonepidemic Serogroup Strains of Vibrio cholerae. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 69: 1728-1738 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Faruque, S. M., Kamruzzaman, M., Asadulghani, , Sack, D. A., Mekalanos, J. J., Nair, G. B. (2003). CTXPhi -independent production of the RS1 satellite phage by Vibriocholerae. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100: 1280-1285 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Lipp, E. K., Huq, A., Colwell, R. R. (2002). Effects of Global Climate on Infectious Disease: the Cholera Model. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 15: 757-770 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Faruque, S. M., Asadulghani, , Kamruzzaman, M., Nandi, R. K., Ghosh, A. N., Nair, G. B., Mekalanos, J. J., Sack, D. A. (2002). RS1 Element of Vibrio cholerae Can Propagate Horizontally as a Filamentous Phage Exploiting the Morphogenesis Genes of CTX{Phi}. Infect. Immun. 70: 163-170 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Dalsgaard, A., Serichantalergs, O., Forslund, A., Lin, W., Mekalanos, J., Mintz, E., Shimada, T., Wells, J. G. (2001). Clinical and Environmental Isolates of Vibrio cholerae Serogroup O141 Carry the CTX Phage and the Genes Encoding the Toxin-Coregulated Pili. J. Clin. Microbiol. 39: 4086-4092 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Faruque, S. M., Rahman, M. M., Hasan, A. K. M. M., Nair, G. B., Mekalanos, J. J., Sack, D. A. (2001). Diminished Diarrheal Response to Vibrio cholerae Strains Carrying the Replicative Form of the CTX{Phi} Genome instead of CTX{Phi} Lysogens in Adult Rabbits. Infect. Immun. 69: 6084-6090 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Chakraborty, S., Deokule, J. S., Garg, P., Bhattacharya, S. K., Nandy, R. K., Nair, G. B., Yamasaki, S., Takeda, Y., Ramamurthy, T. (2001). Concomitant Infection of Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in an Outbreak of Cholera Caused by Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 in Ahmedabad, India. J. Clin. Microbiol. 39: 3241-3246 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Boyd, E. F., Heilpern, A. J., Waldor, M. K. (2000). Molecular Analyses of a Putative CTXphi Precursor and Evidence for Independent Acquisition of Distinct CTXphi s by Toxigenic Vibrio cholerae. J. Bacteriol. 182: 5530-5538 [Abstract] [Full Text]