Variable Freshwater Influences on the Abundance of Vibrio vulnificus in a Tropical Urban Estuary.

ABSTRACT: To better understand the controls on the opportunistic human pathogen Vibrio vulnificus in warm tropical waters, we conducted a year-long investigation in the Ala Wai Canal, a channelized estuary in Honolulu, HI. The abundance of V. vulnificus, as determined by quantitative PCR (qPCR) of the hemolysin gene (vvhA), varied spatially and temporally by nearly 4 orders of magnitude (≤3 to 14,000 mL^-1). Unlike in temperate and subtropical systems, temperatures were persistently warm (19 to 31°C) and explained little of the variability in V. vulnificus abundance. Salinity (1 to 36 ppt) had a significant, but nonlinear, relationship with V. vulnificus abundance with the highest vvhA concentrations (>2,500 mL^-1) observed only at salinities from 7 to 22 ppt. V. vu

SUBMITTER: Nigro OD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8939318 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature