Since 1995, new virulent strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus have emerged and spread throughout the world. These "pandemic" strains have four strain specific genomic islands (GIs), which are considered to be potential factors of the pandemicity. We investigated the origin and function of 24 genes in the so-called VPaI-1, one of the four GIs, by searching homologs in various species in Bacteria a...

Recently, Takeya and Shimodori (J. Bacteriol. 85:957, 1963) reported that every known strain of Celebes type El Tor vibrio is lysogenic and produces a characteristic temperate phage which has a very narrow host range. Further studies have revealed that 136 of 138 strains of El Tor vibrio isolated in the epidemic of the West Pacific from 1959 to 1963 were lysogenic and that all the temperate pha...

Iron is an essential element for the growth and development of virtually all living organisms. As iron acquisition is critical for the pathogenesis, a host defense strategy during infection is to sequester iron to restrict the growth of invading pathogens. To counteract this strategy, bacteria such as Vibrio parahaemolyticus have adapted to such an environment by developing mechanisms to obtain...

A genomic subtraction between a pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus and a nonpandemic strain that seemed to be clonally related was performed. A subtractive DNA fragment was identified to be a part of a 16-kbp insertion sequence which was present in almost all pandemic strains but not in nonpandemic strains tested.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis following ingestion of contaminated seafood. This report presents the draft genome sequences of four clinical strains of V. parahaemolyticus isolated in Canada. All four strains lack traditional pathogenic markers and possess uniquely individual characteristics identified using other typing criteria.

We report on a genomic and functional analysis of a novel marine siphovirus, the Vibrio phage SIO-2. This phage is lytic for related Vibrio species of great ecological interest including the broadly antagonistic bacterium Vibrio sp. SWAT3 as well as notable members of the Harveyi clade (V.harveyi ATTC BAA-1116 and V.campbellii ATCC 25920). Vibrio phage SIO-2 has a circularly permuted genome of ...

We have developed a transposon mutagenesis system for Vibrio fischeri ES114 that utilizes a hyperactive mutant Tn5 transposase (E54K and M56A) and optimized transposon ends. Using a conjugation-based procedure, we obtained independent single-insertion mini-Tn5 mutants at a rate of approximately 10(-6). This simple and inexpensive technique represents a significant improvement over previous meth...

During July and August, 1997, British Columbia (BC) experienced an outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (VP) gastroenteritis associated with consumption of raw and undercooked oysters. VP is a naturally occurring, halophilic bacterium which can be found in BC’s coastal waters and, at least during the summer months, in marine shellfish(1). This report presents the preliminary findings of the outb...