Development of a markerless deletion system for the fish-pathogenic bacterium Flavobacterium psychrophilum.

ABSTRACT: Flavobacterium psychrophilum is a Gram-negative fish pathogen that causes important economic losses in aquaculture worldwide. Although the genome of this bacterium has been determined, the function and relative importance of genes in relation to virulence remain to be established. To investigate their respective contribution to the bacterial pathogenesis, effective tools for gene inactivation are required. In the present study, a markerless gene deletion system has been successfully developed for the first time in this bacterium. Using this method, the F. psychrophilum fcpB gene, encoding a predicted cysteine protease homologous to Streptococcus pyogenes streptopain, was deleted. The developed system involved the construction of a conjugative plasmid that harbors the flanking sequences of

SUBMITTER: Gomez E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4333118 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature