The putative virulence plasmid pYR4 of the fish pathogen Yersinia ruckeri ls conjugative and stabilized by a HigBA toxin–antitoxin system

Floras, F ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3135-0171, Mawere, C, Singh, M, Wootton, V, Hamstead, L, McVicker, G ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6967-5968 and Leo, JC ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7066-7527, 2024. The putative virulence plasmid pYR4 of the fish pathogen Yersinia ruckeri ls conjugative and stabilized by a HigBA toxin–antitoxin system. Biology, 13 (9): 652. ISSN 2079-7737

Preview

Text 2200253_Leo.pdf - Published version Download (8MB) | Preview

Abstract

The bacterium Yersinia ruckeri causes enteric redmouth disease in salmonids and hence has substantial economic implications for the farmed fish industry. The Norwegian Y. ruckeri outbreak isolate NVH_3758 carries a relatively uncharacterized plasmid, pYR4, which encodes both type 4 pili and a type 4 secretion system. In this study, we demonstrate that pYR4 does not impose a growth burden on the Y. ruckeri host bacterium, nor does the plasmid contribute to twitching motility (an indicator of type 4 pilus function) or virulence in a Galleria mellonella larval model of infection. However, we show that pYR4 is conjugative. We also reveal, through mutagenesis, that pYR4 encodes a functional post-segregational killing system, HigBA, that is responsible for plasmid maintenance within Y. ruckeri. This is the first toxin–antitoxin system to be characterized for this organism. Whilst further work is needed to elucidate the virulence role of pYR4 and whether it contributes to bacterial disease under non-laboratory conditions, our results suggest that the plasmid possesses substantial stability and transfer mechanisms that imply importance within the organism. These results add to our understanding of the mobile genetic elements and evolutionary trajectory of Y. ruckeri as an important commercial pathogen, with consequences for human food production.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Biology
Creators:	Floras, F., Mawere, C., Singh, M., Wootton, V., Hamstead, L., McVicker, G. and Leo, J.C.
Publisher:	MDPI
Date:	23 August 2024
Volume:	13
Number:	9
ISSN:	2079-7737
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.3390/biology13090652 DOI 2200253 Other
Rights:	© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
Divisions:	Schools > School of Science and Technology
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	27 Aug 2024 10:47
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2024 10:47
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/52096

Actions (login required)

Edit View

Statistics

Views

Downloads