Properties of hemolysin and protease produced by Aeromonas trota

PLoS One. 2014 Mar 14;9(3):e91149. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091149. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

We examined the properties of exotoxins produced by Aeromonas trota (A. enteropelogenes), one of the diarrheagenic species of Aeromonadaceae. Nine of 19 A. trota isolates that grew on solid media containing erythrocytes showed hemolytic activity. However, the hemolytic activities of the culture supernatants of these hemolytic strains of A. trota were markedly lower than those of A. sobria when cultured in liquid medium, and the amount of hemolysin detected by immunoblotting using antiserum against the hemolysin produced by A. sobria was also low. A mouse intestine loop assay using living bacterial cells showed that A. trota 701 caused the significant accumulation of fluid, and antiserum against the hemolysin produced suppressed the enterotoxic action of A. trota 701. These results indicated that A. trota 701 was diarrheagenic and the hemolysin produced was the causative agent of the enterotoxic activity of A. trota. The hemolysin in A. sobria was previously shown to be secreted in a preform (inactive form) and be activated when the carboxy-terminal domain was cleaved off by proteases in the culture supernatant. Since mature hemolysin was detected in the culture supernatants of A. trota, we analyzed the extracellular protease produced by A. trota. Fifteen of 19 A. trota isolates that grew on solid media containing skim milk showed proteolytic activity. We subsequently found that most A. trota isolates possessed the serine protease gene, but not the metalloprotease gene. Therefore, we determined the nucleotide sequence of the serine protease gene and its chaperone A. trota gene. The results obtained revealed that the deduced amino acid sequences of serine protease and the chaperone were homologous to those of A. sobria with identities of 83.0% and 75.8%, respectively.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aeromonas / enzymology*
  • Aeromonas / metabolism*
  • Aeromonas / pathogenicity
  • Animals
  • Hemolysin Proteins / metabolism*
  • Immunoblotting
  • Mice
  • Peptide Hydrolases / metabolism*

Substances

  • Hemolysin Proteins
  • Peptide Hydrolases

Grants and funding

This work was supported in part by grants from the Japan Initiative for the Global Research Network on Infectious Diseases, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan, a grant from Takeda Science Foundation, and a Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.