A Vibrio cholerae protease needed for killing of Caenorhabditis elegans has a role in protection from natural predator grazing.

ABSTRACT: Vibrio cholerae is the causal bacterium of the diarrheal disease cholera, and its growth and survival are thought to be curtailed by bacteriovorous predators, e.g., ciliates and flagellates. We explored Caenorhabditis elegans as a test organism after finding that V. cholerae can cause lethal infection of this nematode. By reverse genetics we identified an extracellular protease, the previously uncharacterized PrtV protein, as being necessary for killing. The killing effect is associated with the colonization of bacteria within the Caenorhabditis elegans intestine. We also show that PrtV is essential for V. cholerae in the bacterial survival from grazing by the flagellate Cafeteria roenbergensis and the ciliate Tetrahymena pyriformis. The PrtV protein appears to have an indirect role in the

SUBMITTER: Vaitkevicius K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1482601 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature