Lipopolysaccharide O-antigen prevents phagocytosis of Vibrio anguillarum by rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) skin epithelial cells.

ABSTRACT: Colonization of host tissues is a first step taken by many pathogens during the initial stages of infection. Despite the impact of bacterial disease on wild and farmed fish, only a few direct studies have characterized bacterial factors required for colonization of fish tissues. In this study, using live-cell and confocal microscopy, rainbow trout skin epithelial cells, the main structural component of the skin epidermis, were demonstrated to phagocytize bacteria. Mutant analyses showed that the fish pathogen Vibrio anguillarum required the lipopolysaccharide O-antigen to evade phagocytosis and that O-antigen transport required the putative wzm-wzt-wbhA operon, which encodes two ABC polysaccharide transporter proteins and a methyltransferase. Pretreatment of the epithelial cells with manno

SUBMITTER: Lindell K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3360773 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature