Comparative transcriptomic and proteomic analyses reveal upregulated expression of virulence and iron transport factors of Aeromonas hydrophila under iron limitation

BMC Microbiology

Liangkun Pan¹  Kai Chen¹  Pao Xu²  Tao Teng²  Jun Xie²  Bingwen Xi² 

[1] Key Laboratory of Freshwater Fisheries and Germplasm Resources Utilization, Ministry of Agriculture, Freshwater Fisheries Research Center, Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences;Wuxi Fisheries College, Nanjing Agricultural University;

关键词: Transcriptomic;    Proteomic;    Virulence;    Iron;    Aeromonas hydrophila;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12866-018-1178-8

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Iron plays important roles in the growth, reproduction and pathogenicity of Aeromonas hydrophila. In this study, we detected and compared the mRNA and protein expression profiles of A. hydrophila under normal and iron restricted medium with 200 μM 2,2-Dipyridyl using RNA Sequencing (RNA-seq) and isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification (iTRAQ) analyses. Results There were 1204 genes (601 up- and 603 down-regulated) and 236 proteins (90 up- and 146 down-regulated) shown to be differentially expressed, and 167 genes and proteins that showed consistent expression. Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analyses revealed that the differentially expressed genes and proteins were mainly involved in iron ion transport, protein activity, energy metabolism and virulence processes. Further validation of the RNA-seq and iTRAQ results by quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) revealed that 18 of the 20 selected genes were consistently expressed. The iron-ion absorption and concentration of A. hydrophila under iron-limited conditions were enhanced, and most virulence factors (protease activity, hemolytic activity, lipase activity, and swimming ability) were also increased. Artificial A. hydrophila infection caused higher mortality in cyprinid Megalobrama amblycephala under iron-limited conditions. Conclusion Understanding the responses of pathogenic Aeromonas hydrophila within the hostile environment of the fish host, devoid of free iron, is important to reveal bacterial infection and pathogenesis. This study further confirmed the previous finding that iron-limitation efficiently enhanced the virulence of A. hydrophila using multi-omics analyses. We identified differentially expressed genes and proteins, related to enterobactin synthesis and virulence establishment, that play important roles in addressing iron scarcity.

【 授权许可】

Unknown