Open AccessOccurrence and Expression of Luminescence in Vibrio cholerae
Author(s) -
Christopher J. Grim,
Elisa Taviani,
Munirul Alam,
Anwar Huq,
R. Bradley Sack,
Rita R. Colwell
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
applied and environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.552
H-Index - 324
eISSN - 1070-6291
pISSN - 0099-2240
DOI - 10.1128/aem.01537-07
Subject(s) - vibrio cholerae , bioluminescence , microbiology and biotechnology , vibrionaceae , biology , vibrio , operon , gene , bacteria , genetics , escherichia coli , ecology
Several species of the genusVibrio , includingVibrio cholerae , are bioluminescent or contain bioluminescent strains. Previous studies have reported that only 10% ofV. cholerae strains are luminescent. Analysis of 224 isolates of non-O1/non-O139V. cholerae collected from Chesapeake Bay, MD, revealed that 52% (116/224) were luminescent when an improved assay method was employed and 58% (130/224) of isolates harbored theluxA gene. In contrast, 334 non-O1/non-O139V. cholerae strains isolated from two rural provinces in Bangladesh yielded only 21 (6.3%) luminescent and 35 (10.5%)luxA + isolates. An additional 270 clinical and environmental isolates ofV. cholerae serogroups O1 and O139 were tested, and none were luminescent or harboredluxA . These results indicate that bioluminescence may be a trait specific for non-O1/non-O139V. cholerae strains that frequently occur in certain environments. Luminescence expression patterns ofV. cholerae were also investigated, and isolates could be grouped based on expression level. Several strains with defective expression of thelux operon, including natural K variants, were identified.