Enhancement of UV light sensitivity of a Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 pandemic strain due to natural lysogenization by a telomeric phage.

ABSTRACT: The Vibrio parahaemolyticus O3:K6 pandemic clonal strain was first observed in southern Chile in 2004 and has since caused approximately 8,000 seafood-related diarrhea cases in this region. The massive proliferation of the original clonal population offers a unique opportunity to study the evolution of a bacterial pathogen in its natural environment by detection and characterization of emerging bacterial variants. Here, we describe a group of pandemic variants characterized by the presence of a 42-kb extrachromosomal DNA that can be recovered by alkaline extraction. Upon treatment with mitomycin C, these variants lyse with production of a myovirus containing DNA of equal size to the plasmid but which cannot be recovered by alkaline extraction. Plasmid and phage DNAs show similar restrictio

SUBMITTER: Zabala B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2655458 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature