Sargasso Sea Vibrio bacteria: Underexplored potential pathovars in a perturbed habitat

Tracy J Mincer; Ryan P Bos; Erik R Zettler; Shiye Zhao; Alejandro A Asbun; William D Orsi; Vincent S Guzzetta; Linda A Amaral-Zettler

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2023.120033

Sargasso Sea Vibrio bacteria: Underexplored potential pathovars in a perturbed habitat

Water Res. 2023 Aug 15:242:120033. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120033. Epub 2023 May 3.

Authors

Tracy J Mincer¹, Ryan P Bos², Erik R Zettler³, Shiye Zhao⁴, Alejandro A Asbun³, William D Orsi⁵, Vincent S Guzzetta⁶, Linda A Amaral-Zettler⁷

Affiliations

¹ Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, FL, USA; Department of Biology, Wilkes Honors College, Florida Atlantic University, Jupiter, FL, USA. Electronic address: tmincer@fau.edu.
² Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Florida Atlantic University, Fort Pierce, FL, USA.
³ Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Texel, the Netherlands.
⁴ Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 2-15 Natsushimacho, Yokosuka 237-0061, Japan.
⁵ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Paleontology and Geobiology,Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80333 Munich, Germany.
⁶ Emory University, Medical College, Atlanta, GA, USA.
⁷ Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry, NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Den Burg, Texel, the Netherlands; Department of Freshwater and Marine Ecology, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Josephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA. Electronic address: linda.amaral-zettler@nioz.nl.

PMID: 37244770
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120033

Abstract

We fully sequenced the genomes of 16 Vibrio cultivars isolated from eel larvae, plastic marine debris (PMD), the pelagic brown macroalga Sargassum, and seawater samples collected from the Caribbean and Sargasso Seas of the North Atlantic Ocean. Annotation and mapping of these 16 bacterial genome sequences to a PMD-derived Vibrio metagenome-assembled genome created for this study showcased vertebrate pathogen genes closely-related to cholera and non-cholera pathovars. Phenotype testing of cultivars confirmed rapid biofilm formation, hemolytic, and lipophospholytic activities, consistent with pathogenic potential. Our study illustrates that open ocean vibrios represent a heretofore undescribed group of microbes, some representing potential new species, possessing an amalgam of pathogenic and low nutrient acquisition genes, reflecting their pelagic habitat and the substrates and hosts they colonize.

Keywords: Marine; Oligotrophic; Open ocean; Pathogen; Plastic marine debris; Sargassum; Vibrio.

MeSH terms

Atlantic Ocean
Ecosystem
Oceans and Seas
Seawater* / microbiology
Vibrio* / genetics